Itachi of the leaf
by anomynous13
Summary: What if Itachi wasn't forced to leave after he massacred the Uchiha clan but managed to remain in the leaf as a ninja of Konoha and even a sensei. Please forgive spelling mistakes even though English is my first language.
1. Sensei

Sasuke dashed straight home from the academy eager to inform his parents that he had proved best at taijutsu in the class once again but instead of finding smiling proud faces through the door all he saw were two bloody corpses. "How was school?" a grinning Itachi asked as he entered the room, blood all over his hands and clothes. "Y-y-you killed them!" Sasuke accused his older brother angrily as he took out a kunai and ran at him. Itachi was not fazed and picked Sasuke up by his collar as he explained about the Uchiha coup to his enraged brother. "Traitor. You betrayed our clan." Was also Sasuke could think of as he swung desperately at his older brother.

"Itachi, I understand your little brother has graduated top of his class as a genin." Hiruzen informed the anbu captain in a meeting a few years later. Itachi simply nodded in agreement.

"As you two are the last two Uchiha I'll be relieving you of anbu duties so you can focus on training him in use of the Sharingan. I want you to be a sensei and pass on your knowledge to the next generation." The Hokage ordered the progidy.

"Who are the genin I'll be mentoring?" Itachi asked inquisitively. Sarutobi slipped the Uchiha three files. "With your Sharingan you are perfect for controlling the power of the nine tails."

"Quiet! Everyone back to their desks!" Iruka roared at the squabbling 12 year olds in front of him. The children reluctantly went to their seats as Iruka unrolled the scroll that listed their team assignments. He began reading but Naruto was interested until he heard his name. "Team 3, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno and Kiba Inuzuka." Iruka announced to the eager genin. A scream of joy could be heard from Naruto whilst a shriek of anger escaped Sakura. "I didn't want to be with Naruto either boy." Kiba said to Akamaru who was growling annoyed.

"Your sensei will be Itachi Uchiha." Iruka added when the room quietened down causing Sasuke to swivel his head. "Isn't that your brother?" Kiba asked Sasuke recognising the name.

"He's a heartless monster who will kill everything you love." Was the harsh reply before Sasuke went back to day dreaming about the day he avenged his family for Itachi's actions.

"Team 8, Shino Aburame, Sasuke Uchiha, Hinata Hyuga." Sasuke cursed that he got stuck with the weak Hyuuga girl before glaring at the Aburame. Shino was a mystery but Sasuke suspected he too would only hold him back. "Hey Shikamaru, think we'll be on a team?" Choji asked his buddy as he tore into a packet of crisps. "Of course, they always do Ino-Shika-Cho when they can." Shikamaru yawned with Iruka's announcement confirming his theory.

Soon enough Itachi Uchiha appeared in the academy to pick up his squad. "Hello brother." A cheery Itachi greeted as he walked past his brooding sibling. "Die!" was the affectionate response and Itachi chuckled at Sasuke's request. "Team 3." Itachi called, causing a sleeping Naruto to jump up and bang his head against the wall. "Idiot." Sakura groaned as Kiba burst out laughing. "Meet me at training ground 16, you have 10 minutes." Itachi's shadow clone commanded before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Kiba smashed through the window with Akamaru chasing after him. Sakura simply went out through the door. "Wait for me!" a groggy Naruto said as he ran after his team mates.

Itachi watched as Naruto, the last of the genin arrived. The Uchiha stared deep into Naruto's eyed, his Mangeyko Sharingan able to sense the Nine Tailed Fox inside. "Now that you're all here," Sakura glared at Naruto condescendingly, "before you can become genin I need to test you personally." Itachi said as a genjutsu descended around the training ground. They were in a forest and an 8 year old Itachi was standing in the middle of a clearing. "You three will fight against my 10 year old self. Each of you need to draw blood from him to become genin or else I will send you back to the academy." Itachi explained.

"10 year old, you're making this to easy sensei." Naruto cockily bragged as he stared at the little child he was expected to fight.

"Naruto look at his jacket." Kiba whispered into the blonde's ear. Naruto squinted, wondering what was so interesting until Itachi interrupted "At the age of 10 I was already a Chuunin." Naruto gaped at his sensei, wondering how powerful Itachi really was before turning to the 10 year old who suddenly seemed a lot more intimidating. "Go!" Itachi nodded before retreating to a safe distance to spectate.

Naruto took out a kunai and charged at the little boy. Young Itachi didn't even turn around as he jumped backwards over Naruto and kicked him in the back. "Firestyle, fireball jutsu." Itachi shouted spewing a massive fireball that Naruto narrowly avoided. "Fire style phoenix flower." Itachi continued, the 10 year old not holding back and Naruto was pelted by the burning flames and knocked to the ground.

Naruto was not one to give up though and stood up creating 40 shadow clones. They all pulled out kunai and attempted to swarm the young Itachi. Itachi responded by creating his own shadow clone and both Itachi's activated their Sharingan before easily dispelling Naruto's clones and slamming Naruto into a nearby tree. "Wow, Itachi is strong." Kiba commented as he and Sakura watched the fight from the bushes.

"We couldn't beat him alone." Sakura agreed with Kiba. Suddenly Akamaru barked furiously at his owner. "What? Actually that could work, Sakura what if we worked as a team?" Kiba said taking his pet's advice.

"Hey Naruto, when did you learn to make so many shadow clones." Sakura inquired sweetly to her unsuspecting ally.

"Yesterday. I can make hundreds of them if I want." Naruto bragged proudly. Sakura wondered when Naruto got so strong as he couldn't even do the clone jutsu but decided to ignore it before asking him to show her how strong the jutsu really was. Soon the forest was filled with Naruto's that all tried to take down the 8 year old. Itachi flung his kunai accurately, eliminating clones all over the place as they closed in on him. Suddenly a volley of Shurriken was sent his way by Sakura and he barely ducked beneath them, kicking two shadow clones in the process. The 10 year old was too preoccupied to notice the paper bombs detonating above him, scars appearing on his face because of it. Through the smoke he used his Sharingan to punch another shadow clone out of existence only to see Kiba and Akamaru spinning through the air to knock him down.

"I got you now." Two clones laughed as they grabbed Itachi from behind and stabbed him with their kunai. The young Itachi threw the clones away easily but was knocked down by Kiba's fang over fang which smashed his nose, causing blood to flow down his face. "Earth style…" the genjutsu Itachi began before the real Itachi ended the genjutsu. "You pass, the key was teamwork. Even a Chuunin can lose to multiple genin allied together." Itachi taught them, causing Akamaru to woof loudly. "So what, you were right this time."

"Hey guys, wanna go and get some ramen." Naruto asked his team mates when he heard the loud rumbling coming from his stomach. "Do they do steak?" Kiba responded and when Naruto told him about beef ramen he happily agreed. Not wanting to be left out Sakura went along too as team 3 enjoyed their first meal together since their formation.


	2. B-rank

"What's highly essential and extremely powerful?" Itachi asked his students. They had been doing d rank missions and exercises in taijutsu and chakra control for the past few weeks and Itachi thought that it was time to teach them something new.

"Your mum." Kiba replied idiotically with a massive grin on his face.

"I killed my mother under orders from the Hokage." Itachi responded wiping the smiles of his genin's faces and killing the mood as Kiba awkwardly hung his head in shame.

"Elemental jutsu, this special paper reacts to your chakra and once we learn your chakra nature I can teach you extremely powerful jutsu." Itachi promised as he handed the genin the paper. When Sakura grabbed it it turned wet whilst Kiba's crumpled up but Naruto's split into two.

Itachi pulled out two scrolls labelled earth jutsu and water jutsu and tossed them to his other two students before taking Naruto aside. He showed the jinchuriki the hand signs for the fireball jutsu and asked Naruto to try it. Despite multiple attempts Naruto could produce nothing more than wafts of smoke. "Naruto, you have wind chakra so a fire style jutsu such as this one would be difficult for you. However the chakra of the demon fox inside of you has a fire nature meaning you can perform both wind and fire jutsu's with relative ease once you learn how to control that power."Itachi explained in secret to Naruto.

"So what you're saying is that I'm the strongest at elemental jutsu on the entire team." Was the conclusion Naruto drew. "Not exactly but you get the idea." Itachi sighed before rounding up the rest of his team and taking them to the hokage.

"Can we do a proper mission this time?" Naruto whined when they arrived into Hiruzen's office.

"Yeah, I heard Sasuke's team are on a c-rank mission." Kiba added, supporting Naruto's request. Itachi was an Uchiha and although he disliked conflict he did not like being outdone.

"That b-rank mission in kusagakure seems suitable." Itachi claimed earning an inquisitive glare from his hokage.

"Genins on a b-rank mission? We usually reserved those for experienced chunin and jonin." Sarutobi carefully warned the young jonin, trying to deflate Itachi's ego in this rare moment of pride.

"Don't worry, I'll be able to keep them safe against whatever we come up against and it will be a good learning experience. Besides, I hear the genin squad of the Kazekage's children has been on a b-rank mission as well, we have to show that thee leaf is stronger." Itachi told Sarutobi, and the whole of team 8 waited anxiously, breaths held. Itachi was extremely capable and it would be politically advantageous if a genin squad went on a b-rank mission, Hiruzen decided to allow the request against his natural instincts. "Yes!" Naruto yelled enthusiastically, causing Sakura to push him out the window. "Sorry Lord Hokage, sometimes he gets over excited." Haruno politely apologised.

They left early the next morning, it would take one and a half days to reach their destination. Their mission were to capture or assassinate some low level rogue leaf ninja that were suspected of leaking information to other villages. Itachi kept a fast pace all throughout the day so when they finally decided to set up for camp they were exhausted. Their sensei captured and cooked a wild bear for them to share before ordered Kiba and Naruto to spar, ninjutsu and genjutsu allowed.

"What about me sensei?" an enthusiastic Sakura pleaded, hoping that she hadn't been forgotten.

"You are not as good at taijutsu as Kiba and you don't have as much stamina or chakra as Naruto but you possess a skill they don't, chakra control, which is why I am going to train you in genjutsu. Tsukoyomi." Itachi instructed Sakura who soon found herself in a classroom back at the academy. "We are currently in one of my very powerful genjutsu that even distorts time. Notice the attention to detail, high level ninja detect genjutsu by the mistakes within them so I make sure everything is perfect. Those with sensory capibilities such as my Sharingan are harder to fool." Itachi explained as he showed Sakura around his genjutsu version of the academy.

"So are you immune to genjutsu?" Sakura asked. Itachi shook his head and soon enough the entire world turned red and black. Sakura could see the chakra inside Itachi and predict his movements with almost 100% accuracy.

"This is the world as my Sharingan sees it, most people don't understand how an Uchiha would perceive their surroundings but because I'm an Uchiha too I can fool them with ease." Itachi told his student. Colour returned to the world, but Sakura's nose was assaulted by odours she didn't know existed. "As an Inuzuka Kiba can smell many things you wouldn't pick up on. Most genjutsu's don't cater to his advance sense of smell but it is not impossible, everyone can be fooled. The messages Aburame received from their kikai, the ability to see through objects with the Byakugan, even the highly trained senses of high level Anbu can all be replicated by illusions." Itachi explained to Sakura who was amazed by the power of Itachi's eyes.

72 hours later, although it had only been one second in the real world, Sakura had mastered the basics of genjutsu with Itachi's instruction. "Fang over fang." Kiba roared excited as he collided into five Naruto's, knocking the real one into the air. "Wind style, wind cutter." Naruto shouted from above, realeasing a blade of wind that cut off several branches as it approached Kiba. "Earth style earth wall." Kiba responded, blocking Naruto's attack. When the wall fell Kiba was charging right at Naruto, a kunai in each hand. Naruto sidestepped Kiba when he attacked and threw him over his shoulder into a tree only for Kiba to transform into Akamaru. "Take this." The real Kiba yelled from behind, headbutting Naruto as Akamaru chewed on his leg happily.

"Wind style, Wind God's thousand year fury." An Enraged Naruto yelled forming chakra. Soon enough huge hurricanes appeared from all sides and closed in on the Inuzuka. "Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Kiba screamed running when he realised he couldn't understand Akamaru's barking anymore. "Release." He muttered and glared at Naruto annoyed. "Wasn't me." Naruto shrugged and Kiba turned to Sakura, who was trying extremely hard to suppress a smile. "Akamaru you know what to do!" Kiba grimaced and Akamaru nodded solemnly before lifting a single leg.

"Guys, I can sense the rogue ninja we are chasing." Itachi whispered the next day.

"Let's get them." Naruto enthusiastically declared as he summoned two shadow clones but Itachi signalled him to wait.

"I also sense someone much stronger. I'll try and bait him out." Itachi warned his squad of genin before creating an explosive clone and sending it ahead. They waited for a couple of minutes before Itachi said "I was right, there are two chunin level ninja and one above Jonin level. Let me deal with the stronger one."

"And if we give you this information how much will you pay us?" A tall figure wearing a straw hat and a black cloak covered in red clouds asked the grass ninja he was negotiating with. The grass ninja pulled out his wallet when at inconceivable speeds a Kunai pierced his heart. "Looks like we have company, run away you guys are no match for him." The cloaked figure told his assistants who happily scrambled.

"Itachi Uchiha. Let me see how you compare to the rumours." The cloaked figure said.

"You will die here Orachimaru." Itachi threatened the Akatsuki member angrily.

"Shadow Senbon Jutsu." The shorter of the two rogue ninja cried when he saw Sakura as thousands of senbons flew into her, shredding her to pieces. "You'll pay for that." Naruto said as he summoned an army of shadow clones. "Fire style, ash clouds." The taller rogue cried and soon the air was filled with opaque smoke. Memories of pricing Senbon returned to Naruto as his clones were popped and he dived to the ground to avoid attacks. Meanwhile, Kiba and Akamaru, unaffected by the smoke, used their fang over fang to take down the pyromancer. Naruto used his wind blade Jutsu to clear the smoke before summoning two clones, which picked him up and hurled him at the Senbon thrower. The Senbon thrower released 100 more Senbon before substituting out of the way of Naruto's attack, only to be hit by his own Senbon. "Genjutsu? Release." The short rogue ninja realised to find Sakura punching him in the face, causing him to lose consciousness. Kiba picked him and carried him to the other one before tying them together.

"Sakura, I thought you died." Naruto sighed in relief.

"You thought I was so weak I could be killed by a few Senbon." Sakura replied angrily, kicking Naruto into a tree, earning bellowing laughter from Kiba.

Orachimaru breathed a massive fireball ten times the size of Itachi at the Uchiha, who countered by realising just as much water before hurling two lightning bolts at Orachimaru, which were blocked by a Rashomon. "You know a lot of Jutsu." Orachimaru complimented as he pulled out Kusanagi and cut through Itachi's crow clone. "So do you." Itachi replied before summoning the sword of Susanoo and knocking Orachimaru's Kusanagi out of his hand. Orachimaru bit his lip and summoned Manda. "Let's see how the Uchiha progidy deals with this." Orachimaru laughed, hoping to steal more Jutsu when Manda turned on him and swung his tail to crush him. Orachimaru quickly cancelled the summoning and curses the Sharingan's ability to control beats with genjutsu. "Your eyes will be mine one day." Orachimaru promised his adversary before biting him on the shoulder and leaving a curse mark. Itachi screamed out in pain and jumped back onto a tree before burning the snake Dannie with his Amaterasu.

"I wonder if I can replicate these flames without your dojutsu." Orachimaru mused as his skin burnt to a crisp leaving a fresh body beneath it. "Explosive clone Jutsu." Itachi announced, splitting into 5 as they all lunged for Orachimaru. Orachimaru was battered by clones suiciding onto him and knocked to the ground. Before he could get up he was caught in the Tsukoyomi and tortured with thousands of Jutsu he didn't know, his lack of knowledge as painful as the techniques themselves. Itachi raised Susanoo's blade to finish off his enemy when it was blocked by Samehada. "I almost let you die to show you how weak you are." Kisame taunted.

"I will get you next time Itachi send your eyes will be mine." Orachimaru spat before reverse summoning to the realm of snakes.

"Fang over fang." Kiba cried as he and his dog flew into Kisame.

"Samehada, I hope you like Inuzuka." Kisame said, stabbing one of the Kiba's flying st him which turned into Akamaru, rupturing his vital organs. "You bastard I will kill you." Kiba shouted when he suddenly fell a sleep, Sakura and Naruto catching him as Itachi's genjutsu took effect.

"I'd love to kill you as well boy but I'm needed elsewhere." Kisame laughed before dispersing into a puddle of water.

There was silence on the journey back as everyone was devastated by Akamaru's death. Kiba especially was traumatised and refused to speak to anyone, running home as soon as they got back to the leaf. "Itachi, how could you let this happen?" Hiruzen asked disappointed when he received the mission report. "I thought it was a b-rank mission but we encountered not one but two s-rank ninja. Orachimaru and Kisame of the hidden mist appeared to be members of the group Akatsuki, they are more dangerous than we originally thought, especially as Orachimaru was treated as one of the weaker members." Itachi replied sternly.

"I'll order further investigation." Sarutobi replied eventually, relieving the tension in the room.


	3. Exams

Kiba didn't show up to training for an entire week. When he finally returned he was no longer his joyous brash self, his miserable personality reflected in his dark attire. He had painted the markings on his face a dark blue and had a tattoo of Akamaru on each arm. "Hey Sakura, did you see all those foreign ninja wandering around the village, do you why they are here?" Naruto asked as he saw two mist ninja walk by the training ground when a flock of crows dispersed to reveal Itachi who dropped down from the sky and landed to answer Naruto's question.

"Today is a very special time of year, the Chunin exams. Ninja from other villages have come to Konoha to prove their might and earn a promotion by completing various trials. You three can participate as well but only if you all agree." Itachi explained to his eager student.

"Alright, let's do it." Naruto yelled as he jumped up into the air.

"Um…Is…Sasuke doing it?" Sakura asked Itachi nervously and when the Uchiha nodded she agreed to compete as well. Naruto high fived Sakura and tried to fist bump Kiba but the Inuzuka left him hanging. "What's the point? We'll probably just end up dying against some really powerful ninja, we're only rookies." Kiba moaned, enraging Naruto immensely but before the blonde could retort Itachi said "Many squads don't enter on their first chance, no need to feel ashamed."

That evening Naruto and Sakura showed up to Kiba's house and banged on the door until Hana answered. "Kiba, your friends are here." Kiba's sister called, summoning him to the steps.

"What do you want?" Kiba sighed dejectedly.

"To become Chunin but we need your help." Sakura pleaded with the boy.

"No, we're weaklings, we would've died if Itachi wasn't there on that mission. Especially you Naruto, you're the worst in our year." Kiba told them.

"I'm no weakling, I'm the future Hokage. I'll prove it right here, right now." Naruto shouted at Kiba, raising his fists to challenge his ally. Kiba pulled his hand out of his pocket and dropped a smoke bomb on the ground filling the air with purple smoke. Naruto suddenly felt his legs being hooked and fell face first into the dirt, when the smoke cleared Kiba was holding a kunai to the back of his neck.

"You think the Hokage would fool for such a simple trick, I didn't even stealth my movements." Kiba scolded Naruto as he pressed the Kunai against his neck, half a centimetre away from drawing blood.

"Of course not." The shadow clone of Naruto said before disappearing. The real Naruto grabbed Kiba's shoulder and pulled him under his arm, using the other arm to press a kunai to his chest. "See how powerful I am. Now you have to do it?"

"Fiine, if it will make you leave me alone. We'll all die pointless deaths." Kiba submitted before walking back into his house. When he was gone Naruto went up to Sakura. "Thanks for that genjutsu, I had no idea how I was going to escape that."

"Itachi did teach us the power of teamwork." Sakura blushed, not used to receiving compliments.

"Yes I did. Kiba's in a bad mood right now, he had a very strong bond with Akamaru but I trust you two can transform him back into his original self." Itachi said as he stepped out from behind a tree. "Leave it to me." Naruto smiled, giving two thumbs up to his teacher.

When Itachi got home he found Sasuke waiting on the couch, glaring at him. If looks could kill Itachi would be deep into the belly of the Shinigami. "Hello Sasuke, how was your day? Make any new friends?" was the cheery greeting which only pissed off Sasuke further, who was sure he was facing a demon is disguise.

"I need you to train me, I need to get stronger." Sasuke reluctantly grunted.

"Sure little bro. I'm always happy to help." Itachi grinned.

"Doesn't mean I won't murder you when the time comes." Sasuke warned but Itachi only laughed.

Sasuke set off as early as possible to go to the exams the next day. Shino was always punctual and Hinata would take any opportunity to get out of the house so in the rare occasion where there was a hold up Sasuke was silently blamed. However the Uchiha was too distracted and ended up in the wrong room. He was about to leave when a boy dressed in a green jumpsuit with massive eyebrows and a questionable bowl cut appeared in front of him. "Sasuke Uchiha, I heard you were a natural progidy in the academy. I do not possess your natural talent but by hard work I intend to show that anyone can achieve greatness. Let's see how my Taijutsu compares to yours in a youthful spar." Rock Lee demanded of the Uchiha. Sasuke glanced at the clock and after assuring himself he was on time, activated his Sharingan and signalled that he was ready.

In an instant Rock Lee was in front of him and slammed him high sky. "Sorry, I thought you were ready." Rock Lee apologised to his enemy.

"I was, I underestimated you." Sasuke winced before returning to a fight stance. This time, when Rock Lee dashed behind him he managed to duck a kick to the head and block a punch to the gut. Sasuke went on the offensive, attempting to push Lee onto the ground but Rock grabbed his wrists and flung him into the air. Sasuke's Sharingan allowed a graceful landing but before he could cover Lee was hurtling at him with a roundhouse kick fast enough to take him out.

"Lee, save the fighting for the real exam." Another man who looked like a bigger stronger version of the boy who he was addressing ordered as he caught his student's leg and held him in the air.

"I'm sorry Gai sensei, I will preserve the fires of youth until they are most needed." Lee said.

"Don't worry, we all burn with youthful passion from time to time." Gai responded, revealing a shiny white grin. Sasuke slowly walked away before he could hear the rest of the conversation.

"S-Sa-Sasuke, I was worried." Hinata stuttered when Sasuke finally showed up.

"I'm fine." Sasuke grunted, rubbing his bruises from the battering he received earlier.

"Your chakra is depleted and you appear to be in pain, are you sure you are ok?" Shino questioned, observant as ever. Sasuke didn't make any sound but just nodded his head, giving Shino a look which meant he'll explain later as the other rookie genin arrived.

"Woah, there sure are a lot of people here." Naruto gasped as he stared at the army on ninja he would be competing with.

"It's gonna be a drag." Shikamaru added as he fell back onto the floor, staring at the roof idly.

"Sasuke I'm sure you will find it easy." Sakura complimented as she tried to grab the boys arm when Ino shoved her out of the way. "No one cares what you have to say billboard brow." Naruto and Choji grabbed Sakura and Ino respectively in order to prevent a fight when Naruto saw an Iwa ninja smirking at their childish behaviour. "Hey, you think you're better than me. Well I'm the strongest person here so you can all…" Naruto ranted when Sakura elbowed him in the gut. "Sorry about him he gets hyperactive." Sakura meekly explained to the riled up ninja as Kiba clamped a hand over Naruto's mouth and Choji sat on his legs when Ibiki burst into the room. "I am your proctor for the first exam and until it's over…YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!"

The rules of the test were simple enough but when Naruto saw the questions he had no idea what the answers were. Sakura on the other hand, who studied immensely, could easily find the answers. _Naruto looks stuck, I should help him out._ "Naruto the answer to question one is The land of keys." Sakura shouted across the room.

"Sakura, that's cheating." Naruto whispered back worriedly, wondering why no one had noticed Sakura's indiscreet screaming.

"We are in one of my genjutsu's. It isn't cheating if you don't get caught idiot." Sakura contemptuously stated as she started reeling off the rest of the answers.

"These questions are impossible Aka" Kiba began before he realised he was talking to himself. The guy next to him had already finished and was chewing on his pencil nonchalantly. _Guess I only have one option_ Kiba contemplated before a smoke bomb went off in the room. When the smoke cleared Kiba had taken the paper of the guy next to him, who looked around frantically for his answers. He stared at Kiba who was suddenly very calm and peeked at his paper, realising it was his own. "Number 32, cheating, -2 points." An examiner called out harshly, causing a sadistic grin to flash across Kiba's face. "Think up your own answers." Kiba joked, the irony stinging like a swarm of wasps.

"Let me see it." Anko demanded as she swallowed her canto in a single bite. Itachi pulled up his sleeve to reveal his curse mark. "That's even bigger than mine. With it defeating Orachimaru won't be so easy, you might have to call for back up if you see him." Anko advised as she remembered her own painful experiences when she tried to betray her sensei. "Isn't there anything I can do?" Itachi asked in hope, receiving a disappointing shake. "Shit, the second round of the exam has started, I got to go."

"When's the other proctor gonna get here, it's been like an hour already." Naruto groaned to his teammates when a Kunai grazed his cheek spilling a small amount of blood. "Ten minutes brat." Anko laughed as she caught the Kunai in between two fingers and pocketed it with ease. Anko hurriedly explained the rules before handing out scrolls to the other teams.

"Heaven. Hinata, who has earth scrolls?" Shino asked his timid team mate, who scanned with her Byakugan before pointing to those they could go after. "This should be easy." Sasuke bragged as bugs were planted on everyone who had an earth scroll, meanwhile team 3 were doing a similar thing. "What scroll do we have?" Ino asked Shikamaru, who lazily held up the heaven scroll he was given. Suddenly Ino disappeared as the genjutsu dispelled. "Track their scent as well."

"Enough waiting around, go!" Anko yelled, throwing Kunai at anyone moving too slowly for her liking and soon the second round was underway.


	4. Exams 2

"Guys, I think this is a good place to set up camp." Sakura decided after a few hours of running through the forest. Kiba sniffed the air vigorously before silently agreeing. "I'll get firewood and hunt for food." Naruto called as summoned 33 shadow clones, which scattered in all directions. Pretty soon 3 Naruto's returned holding logs and a slab of meat. "Guys, I got everything you asked." One of the Naruto's called out as they approached Kiba and Sakura. Sakura got up to help Naruto when Kiba grabbed her leg. "Looks like Naruto, sounds like Naruto, even speaks like Naruto. But does it smell like Naruto? No!"

The three Naruto's transformed into enemy ninja with cloud headbands. "Guys, buy me time so I can prepare my Jutsu." One of them said as he leapt backwards. "Sure, we got you covered." A girl with blood red eyes assured. "You deal with the girl, I got this guy." The other cloud ninja planned as his muscles bulged through his shirt ripping it off. "Lightning style thunder punch." He cried attempting to slam Kiba with his fist. Kiba leaped back onto a tree thinking he had dodged the attack as the lightning infused fist pierced the ground, when chunks of earth flew at him knocking him to the ground. As he got up two lightning infused shurriken hit his left arm, paralysing it and rendering it useless. The beefy cloud ninja came at him with a lariat to finish him off when Kiba released purple smoke into the air. "Headhunter Jutsu." Kiba cried as the cloud ninja fell into the ground. "Earth style earth dome." Kiba added, trapping the cloud ninja underground.

Sakura stabbed her red eyed opponent with another Kunai but screamed out in pain again. Despised not being hit at all she was bleeding heavily and her flesh was bruised. "I've never seen my genjutsu work so well. You should pass out any second now." The cloud girl laughed, dispelling her genjutsu to reveal that Sakura had been stacking herself the whole time. "Your genjutsu, more like my genjutsu. I could tell as soon as you put me in it as the birds flying overhead aren't native to this village. So I did the natural thing, put you in a genjutsu where you thought I had been fooled by your genjutsu." Sakura smirked as the girl felt sudden pain, her body covered in the injuries Sakura gave her before losing consciousness.

"Damn it, they defeated my team mates." The third ninja cursed under his breath as he finished focus in his chakra. "Laser style Armageddon beam." He roared, pointing the highly concentrated laser at Sakura. Trees were scorched and animals killed as the laser flew through the air towards Sakura, the intense amount of chakra disrupting Sakura's own chakra control as chakra leaked out the Jutsu. "You bastard." Naruto shouted as he jumped in front of the laser beam whilst two of his shadow clones pulled Sakura to the ground, the beam going straight through his chest and splattering his organs everywhere.

Naruto woke up in a dark damp room. "Idiotic humans, dying from a tiny Jutsu like that." A voice filled with hatred and killing intent insulted, causing Naruto to turn around and see a giant demonic fox through the bars trapping it. "Dead, if I'm dead how am I here?" Naruto shouted back angrily, glaring at the fox intensely. "My sheer power prolongs your existence if only temporarily. You just had to go and die, do you know how long it will take me to return to the mortal realm." The demon fox complained, spitting at Naruto to spite him further.

"Well can't you do something about it?" Naruto whined back. There was silence for half a minutes before the fox finally sighed. "I'll fucking save you this time but you owe me one." The fox swore as red chakra flew out of his cage.

"Naruto!" Sakura screamed as his blood poured out of his body. Naruto's chest had burst open, his guts strewn across the floor. "Why?" Was all Sakura could say when red chakra engulfed his body. Sakura watched a medical impossibility with her own eyes as Naruto's organs were pulled back into his body, his bones rebuilding and his skin forming new layers to cover the wound. "Fire style, great fire ball Justu." Naruto yelled, as red chakra burst out of his mouth, forming a fireball the size of a house. "Substitution." The laser user desperately attempted to switch with a log but all the nearby ones had burnt to a crisp.

There was a massive explosion which only left a bloody corpse. "Heaven scroll, what we needed!" Kiba told Naruto and Sakura when he searched the body. Suddenly, out of the Earth the most muscular of the cloud genin burst out. "You killed Rickito. Feel the wrath of the Thunder god. Raiden, accept me a sacrifice and bring your fury upon this murderous leaf ninja." The cloud ninja pleaded to the sky. He began chanting in cultivating tones and soon his entire body dissolved into lightning.

"Guys, um, was it that cloudy before?" Naruto nervously asked a storm clouds gathered above him rapidly, darkening over time until they were a deathly black. "You did go a bit overboard on that fireball." Kiba observed as lightning began to crackle, before stepping away from Naruto. Suddenly, not one, not two, but 20 bolts of lightning descended onto Naruto, knocking him unconscious and charring his skin deeply. Sakura instinctively put her head to his chest to check for a heartbeat. "It's beating, but way too fast. He needs medical attention soon." She told Kiba and several shadow clones which had gathered round to help their creator. "Ok, listen up clones. Naruto's dying and only we can save him so you listen to us now. We're heading straight for the tower and we're sure to be attacked so we'll need a distraction, disguise your selves and be ready to sacrifice your lives to lead attacking enemies away from us, it's for the greater good." Kiba barked like an army drill seargent, the clones obediently following his command. Kiba and Sakura rushed Naruto straight to the tower, Kiba discovering enemies with his scent and sending clones their way the whole time. By midnight they arrived at the tower and quickly opened the scrolls.

"Hey guys you passed the second OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPENED TO NARUTO! MEDICS." Iruka called as he appeared from the scroll. Two medical ninja rushed over and started treating the wounds with their medical ninjutsu. Sakura and Kiba went to sit down only to find another squad already seated.

"Eight hours, that's how skilful Suna genin are." Kankuro bragged when he noticed the leaf headbands infront of him.

"Shut up, you know it was all me. I will not hesisitate to murder you if you try and reduce the worth of my existence." Gaara snapped back, sand leaking out of his gourd as Kankuro turned a pale white.

"Gaara, you can kill whoever you want next round." Temari offered, trying to appease her psychopathic brother.

"I will not waste my time killing weak enemies, like these two over here." Gaara responded.

"Hey…" Sakura began but Kiba pulled her away.

"That guy's powerful." Kiba explained when Sakura gave him a piercing stare.

"8 hours isn't that much faster than us." Sakura said pointing to the clock.

"No, I smelt his chakra. Same chakra that saved Naruto from that death laser and allowed him to make that insane fireball." Kiba warned and Sakura reluctantly backed down.

"The next round doesn't start for a while, come back in three days and get some rest." Iruka smiled and the two went home to enjoy themselves for the next couple of days. Finally, it was time for the next round.

"Hey, you guys passed as well?" Kiba asked Shikamaru who lazily nodded.

"Sasuke's team took our scroll so we had to get two, it was such a drag." Shikamaru moaned noisily.

"S-s-sorry, we were just trying to become chunin." Hinata nervously explained.

"Why apologise? We followed the rules given to us which everybody had ageed to." Shino replied.

"Yeah but shouldn't we leaf ninja stick together." Ino argued when a deep cough silence the whole room.

"I'm Hayate Gekko, your proctor for the third round. Originally we were going to have a knockout tournament where you would show off your skills but there are 18 of you and so we will need a preliminary round where the losers will be eliminated. If I believe there is a clear winner I can end the fight at any time. Before we start this anyone want to withdraw?" Hayate rasped before downing a bottle of water.

"Hey Suigetsu, we're going to sit this one out." Two mist ninja explained to their third team mate. "Don't worry, I'll deal with them." Suigetsu smiled, his teeth sharp and his grin evil.

"Ok, let's see who will be going first." Hayate said as he pointed to a flashing screen which revealed the names Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno.

"You can do it Sakura." Naruto yelled enthusiastically.

"I believe in you Sasuke." Hinata cheered, but much too quiet for anyone to hear.

"Sasuke is the logical winner of this fight." Shino mused as his team mate jumped down into the arena, with Sakura landing in front of him.

"Time to show Sasuke how strong we are." Inner Sakura declared.

"Begin." Hayate ordered.

"Genjutsu, it's useless against my Sharingan." Sasuke said as he rushed straight at Sakura kicking her in the chest. The pink haired girl flew to the ground but got back up. "Those aren't my only tricks, water style water bullet justu." Sakura replied, but Sasuke easily dodged the projectiles before slamming Sakura into the wall. "Remember that genjutsu Itachi showed us, try to replicate that." Inner Sakura screamed as Sakura once again formed a genjutsu. It worked for a few seconds as Sasuke ran off in the wrong direction and Sakura fired more water bullets at him. Suddenly Sasuke turned around and fired much bigger water bullets of his own which smashed through Sakura's and floored her once again. "When I activate my Sharingan everything around me slows down whilst your genjutsu was flowing at normal speed." Sasuke said as he slammed a foot into Sakura's stomach, causing her to scream out in pain. "Submit now or you will only experience more pain." Sasuke warned and Sakura told Hayate she couldn't go on. "Sasuke Uchiha wins." Hayate said before the screen displayed the next match up. Shino Aburame vs Ino Yamanka.

"Begin." Hayate declared as Ino pulled out three shurriken and threw them at Shino, who blocked each one with a kunai. Shino then dashed at Ino and unleashed a barrage of punches, which she easily blocked. "Your taijutsu is weak." Ino smirked when she noticed bugs crawling around on her skin. Soon they enveloped her whole body. "Your chakra reserves will soon be depleted and you will be unable to continue." Shino explained as Ino fell to the ground. Ino help her fingers around her forehead and suddenly her eyes closed.

"I submi-" Shino began when his mouth was filled up with bugs. Inside Shino's mind, Shino explained to Ino "You may control me but I can still control my kikai, they can stop any harm you'll be able to do with me and with the chakra I drained from you I doubt you can keep this jutsu up for very long." Shino deduced as Ino was sucked out of his brain back into her own body. Shino's bugs drained the last of Ino's chakra and the girl passed out on the floor. "Shino Aburame is the winner." Hayate declared as the bugs flew back into Shino's body.

"Oh my god, that is disgusting, I wouldn't like to fight him." Naruto gagged as he watched the insects crawling into Shino's skin. "The job of a ninja will not always be comfortable." Itachi wisely told his student, who grumbled annoyed. Next up was Gaara vs Kankuro but before the match even began Kankuro forfeited. "Just my luck." Kankuro moaned as a smiling Temari got up to fight Naruto Uzumaki.

"Gaara, that guy's a demon just like you." Shukaku taunted, worsening Gaara's already painful headache. "Temari, don't kill him, he is my prey." Gaara warned his sister as sand rose out of his gourd slowly. "I'll hold back then." Temari replied as she went down into the arena. Naruto jumped down in soon after and when the match started Naruto charged at her but was blown away by a huge wave of wind. "That's only the first moon." Temari laughed as she watched Naruto struggle against the wind, before releasing a sharp scythe of wind which cut into Naruto's arm. "Shadow clone jutsu." Naruto yelled, summoning 50 clones to help him. Temari opened up her fan further and release another blast of wind that cut through the clones and knocked Naruto against the wall. Naruto grabbes some shurriken and infused them wind wind chakra before hurling them at Temari, who knocked them away with her fan. Then a third blast of wind came At Naruto, the blonde quickly ducked underneath it but his headband was sucked off his head and hit Kiba square in the eye.

"Idiot." Kiba yelled as he clutched his eye, and Naruto gave him an innocent smile whilst rubbing the back of his head. Then Naruto summoned 200 shadow clones, which all threw wind infused shurriken at Temari. Temari opened up her fan fully and released a massive blast of wind which scattered the Shurriken around the arena. Then she swung her fan towards Naruto as his clones were popped by the harsh winds. Naruto's clothes were shredded by the wind and he was covered in painful scars. Temari pulled back her fan for another swing. "Her wind style is so much stronger than mine and my clones are useless. I'll just have to try another fireball." Naruto thought as he prepared the handsigns for the fireball jutsu. He pulled on Kuruma's chakra but unlike in the forest of death Kuruma wasn't feeling so generous and only a small fireball was produced. "Damn it." Naruto cursed, not knowing the effect of wind style jutsu on fire style jutsu as the massive winds caused the fireball to grow to monsterous sizes, which burnt Temari harshly, knocking the girl out in a few seconds. "Winner." Hayate declared.

"Looks like you're up Neji. Show everyone the power of youth." Rock Lee grinned as Neji jumped into the arena. "Hinata, I'm sure you can do it." Kurenai smiled, trying to give her student a bit of confidence.

"Naruto, how did you do such a strong fireball?" Kiba asked, astounded by Naruto's power.

"I don't know. It was tiny when it left my mouth but it just grew." Naruto replied, equally flabbergasted.

"Wind style chakra strengthens fire style chakra, her fan turned your tiny fireball into a weapon of mass destruction." Sakura explained.

"As you can perform both wind and fire style jutsu you can combine them to create insane strong jutsu that no enemy could withstand." Itachi told Naruto.

"Look, Neji beat Hinata, badly. She's bleeding." Sakura observed, watching medics carry away her classmate.

"That bastard. I'll have to show him." Naruto yelled as he looked at the arrogant progidy.

"Quiet down, it's that kunoichi from the squad in the year above vs that mist ninja who didn't drop out." Kiba shushed as two unknown enemies stepped up to the battlefield. They watched intently as Suigetsu phased through all of Tenten's various weapons by liquefying his body. After Tenten unleashed her twin rising dragon scrolls and he easily went through the assault he started doing many many hand signs. Tenten took out a scroll and pulled out a pole arm before running at Suigetsu but the mist ninja knocked her out with the water dragon jutsu.

"Oh no, I'm last." Kiba groaned as he saw Shikamaru and Choji enter the arena. Then he turned his head to see Rock Lee doing hundreds of push ups and groaned even louder. "This is going to be a drag." Shikamaru sighed as he prepared to fight Choji.

"Shikamaru, don't hold back or I'll send you to train with Gai sensei." Asuma shouted from the stands, motivating his student further.

"Sorry Choji, I'm going to have to go all out on this one." Shikamaru said before Hayate signalled the start of the match. Choji expanded to a massive size and rolled into a boulder going straight for the Naara who barely dodged him. When Choji hit the wall he instantly he found he couldn't move his body and was trapped in Shikamaru's shadows.

"I know that I do whatever you do and I'm a lot bigger and stronger so I could dish out a lot more and take a lot more punishment." Choji said.

"You're also closer to the roof." Shikamaru pointed out as he jumped up and down repeadetly, causing Choji to smash the roof with his head repeatedly until he passed.

"Damn it my turn." Kiba said as he jumped into the arena. Hayate said begin and before Kiba could even move Lee had kicked him into the air. "Earth style" Kiba began when Rock Lee knocked him out with an insanely speedy punch.

"I understand that you may have displayed all your abilities here-" Naruto stared angrily at Gaara, "you have a month of training before the real Chuunin exams. Please take these slips to determine your enemies for the next round." Hayate announced coughing as he handed out the slips.

Two cloaked figures in a bar in a leaf village stared into each other's eyes. "One month to go." One of them said, the other nodded gruffly.


	5. Exams 3

"Sorry Naruto, I'm busy training Sasuke." Itachi apologised, causing Naruto to frown disappointed. Naruto began to trudge away when Itachi said "I did hear rumour of a legendary sage coming to town. Maybe he'll train you because of your 'gift'." Itachi added, causing Naruto's eyes to brighten up enthusiastically.

"Shadow clones, find this legendary sage and bring me to him." Naruto roared as he divided into over a hundred clones which all scurried in different directions.

"Hey, let's go." Sasuke grunted.

"We'll begin with the explosive clone jutsu. You should only make one or two if you build up your reserves adequately over this month but it can be very useful in a pinch." Itachi advised as he showed an impatient Sasuke the hand signs.

"Your eyes, how did you get them?" Sasuke asked practicing the new jutsu he had just been taught.

"Who are your best friends Sasuke?" Itachi answered with another question.

"I asked you first." Sasuke said glaring.

"Well, you'll have to kill one of them to get these eyes." Itachi told him.

"Kill them, but…" Sasuke began.

"Or kill me and take mine. Those are your choices if you want the power of these eyes but there are other ways to obtain power." Itachi bluntly explained. Sasuke summoned an explosive clone which blew up instantly.

"Too much fire chakra." Itachi observed.

"Wait… you killed Shisui." Sasuke realised, even more horrified by his older brother.

"He wanted to die, I only helped him." Itachi said as Sasuke made another explosive clone, which lasted slightly longer before a gust of wind detonated it.

"You monster." Sasuke cursed as he summoned a third clone and after it didn't randomly blow up stabbed a kunai through it.

"That was a pretty weak explosion, maybe a bit more fire chakra. Anyway, one day Shino or Hinata might need to die for the good of the leaf to avoid enemy capture. Wouldn't you take their lives in that situation?" Itachi posed but was met by a stony silence.

"Hey kid, I told you twice already. I'm not training you, I'm busy with research." Jiraiya snapped at the boy.

"Damn you pervy sage. What if I help you with your research?" Naruto grumbled as he activated the transformation jutsu.

"Sure, when do we start?" Jiraiya agreed as his eyes popped out of his head and blood flowed from his nose.

"Look, this one's bigger." Naruto grinned as he summoned a tiny tadpole that disappeared before it suffocated.

"By like half a centimetre."

"It was like two centimetres."

"One."

"One and a half."

"The point is, tadpoles are useless in battle, so do it properly." Jiraiya moaned. Naruto focused really hard before biting his thumb and summoning another tadpole.

"Ok, we'll try something else." The toad sage muttered before shoving Naruto off a cliff.

"Dying again are we? You can't keep asking for my help and give me nothing in return." Kurama shouted into Naruto's mind.

"If I die so do you!" Naruto thought back.

"Damn you humans, fragile bastards who can't survive a drop of a mere 2000 ft." Kurama swore as he pumped his chakra into Naruto's body.

"Summoning jutsu." Naruto cried, landing on top of Gamabunta.

"Hey kid, who do you think you are summoning me here of all places." Gamabunta challenged as he puffed his pipe, stuck uncomfortably in the pit Naruto had been shoved into.

"Sorry, Jiraiya pushed me down this ravine and the only jutsu that could save me was this one." Naruto sighed sheepishly.

"Geez kid, you should learn some respect." Gamba tub scolded before painfully leaping out of the abyss and then disappearing dropping Naruto onto dry land.

"Kurenai sensei. Remember when we went on that mission." Shino asked, adjusting his glasses to better hide his eyes.

"Yes, what about it." Kurenai replied confused.

"I want the scroll." Shino told her and after a brief moment of thought handed it to him.

Naruto woke up as a fist pounded into his stomach.

"Kiba, what the hell." Naruto complained as he rolled out of bed.

"It's the chunin exams and you're already late." Kiba said as he pulled Naruto up and shoved him into cupboard.

"Shit, is it my match first." Naruto asked as he summoned a shadow clone to prepare him some instant ramen while he got dressed.

"Yeah but Sakura convinced them to postpone it so hurry up." Kiba growled, throwing a toothbrush into Naruto's mouth to help him get ready.

"Well, while we wait for Naruto Uzimaki to arrive, Sasuke Uchiha will fight Neji Hyuga." Genma, the stand in proctor since Hayate had mysteriously gone missing declared.

"The Hyuuga progidy will easily win this battle." One audience member said.

"My money's on the Uchiha, he's a progidy himself." Another audience member replied.

"Not like his older brother, but Neji here would become clan head if it wasn't for the clan politics of the Hyuga." A third audience member chipped in.

"Itachi is monstrous, not even Hiashi compares to him, that is the power of an Uchiha." A fourth one mentioned.

"You may be the progidy of your year but I am the progidy of mine and it is your fate to lose here today to me, Konoha's strongest genin." Neji told Sasuke arrogantly.

"Strongest genin eh? You might be after this exam." Sasuke smirked just as cockily.

"Byakugan!"

"Sharingan!"

"Begin!"

Sasuke dashed straight at Neji and the two engaged in hand to hand combat, with both blocking the other easily. "My taijutsu is very superior to yours, all I need is to touch you to bring you down with my gentle fist." Neji told Sasuke as he blocked his leg and tried to jab him once again.

"Maybe so, but my ninjutsu will decimate you." Sasuke declared jumping back and firing a massive fireball at Neji. Neji jumped out of the way of it with ease and ran towards Sasuke to unleash more taijutsu upon him.

"Fire style, flaming rain." Sasuke said as he released 50 burning Kunai straight at his enemy.

"Rotation." Neji calmly called out as he spun at raid speeds, deflecting every attack that came his way.

"Your ninjutsu is no match for the ultimate defence of the Hyuga. You had lost this battle from the very beginning. It was your destiny." Neji told Sasuke as he slowly walked towards him.

"I don't believe in destiny. The Uchiha were destined to be the most powerful clan but my evil older brother Itachi…" Sasuke began.

"You can do it Sasuke." Itachi cheered from the crowd, causing Sasuke to spit on the floor in disgust.

"As I was saying, Itachi murdered them all. Fate can be changed by power, and your power doesn't compare to mine." Sasuke said as he pulled out a Kunai and tried to shove it through Neji's chest. Neji easily knocked the Kunai away and then paralysed 64 of Sasuke's chakra points in quick succession. At least he thought he did when Sasuke exploded knocking him into the wall. "Lion barrage." Sasuke shouted as he pounded a fatigue Neji, in too much pain to dodge and block, causing the Hyuga to lose consciousness completely.

"Sasuke Uchiha is the winner." Gekko declared, holding Sasuke's hand into the air as the audience exploded.

"Next up, all the way from the hidden mist is Suigetsu fighting against Shikamaru of the hidden leaf." Gekko called.

"Stop daydreaming and fight." Ino demanded kicking Shikamaru into the arena.

"Look at this pathetic loser." Suigetsu taunted, showing a shark like grin.

"Begin!"

Shikamaru used the shadow possession jutsu to try and catch Suigetsu but the mist ninja back flipped out of range."I saw that thing in the preliminaries, not going to get caught by that. Not got a very long range has it." Suigetsu laughed evilly as Shikamaru retreated behind some trees.

"I can kill you from back here as well." Suigetsu threatened as he started the 44 hand signs needed for the water dragon jutsu. It wasn't super entertaining but eventually Suigetsu managed to launch off a massive water dragon that destroyed the trees Shikamaru was hiding behind and slammed him against the wall.

"Isn't that an B-rank technique. How can a genin like us perform it." Sakura asked her sensei.

"It's not the amount of chakra that makes it hard to use, it's the number of hand signs. However as Shikamaru isn't fighting back the jutsu is just as useful as any other." Itachi told her. At that time Suigetsu launched another water dragon that narrowly missed Shikamaru, smashing up the ground around him. Shikamaru sent out his shadow again. Suigetsu only watched it thinking he was out of range when suddenly it was upon him and he barely managed to slide out of his way.

"Shit, the sun's setting. That only makes you stronger with your shadows doesn't it, I'll just have to end this quickly." Suigetsu cursed as he began preparing another water dragon jutsu. Just as he reached the 40th hand sign he noticed the shadow coming at him again. Suigetsu looked at the sun and took two steps back but it kept on coming and Suigetsu was forced to cancel his jutsu to slide backwards. A Kunai attached to a parachute landed beside him. "You cunning bastard. You leaf ninja think your tricks can defeat the power of the bloody mist. We're called that for a reason." Suigetsu shouted at Shikamaru, who went back to planning. "The next water dragon will end you, I can see your exhausted." Suigetsu told Shikamaru confidently as he began doing the hand signs, his hands liquefying to flow into each hand sign faster than before, accelerating the process rapidly as he fired the water dragon directly at Shikamaru.

"Shadow possession jutsu." Shikamaru said ducking under the water dragon, binding Suigetsu in place.

"What how?" Suigetsu bellowed after trying to move.

"Chakra infused water is not entirely see through and created a slight shadow. You tired to finish me off by using a lot of chakra so the shadow was rather opaque and by taking control of it I caught you with my shadow possession." Shikamaru explained.

"Damn it. I.." Suigetsu began when Shikamaru forfeited the fight.

"Why? You taking the piss." Suigetsu demanded.

"No, I'm almost out of chakra. In a real fight you would have won." Shikamaru said as the shadows connecting him and Suigetsu disappeared on cue.

Next up was Rock Lee fighting against Shino Aburame. "Shino let's demonstrate our youth in an all out battle. Don't hold back any of your techniques." Rock lee called out. Shino simply nodded. When the match began Rock Lee rushed at Shino and slammed his fist straight through the genin, who dissolved into a swarm of bugs which began feeding on Lee's chakra. "I knew due to your speed and taijutsu skill you would try and best me in physical combat so I decided to get one of my bug clones to masquerade as me while I hid in the arena. Soon the bugs will drain enough of your chakra to leave you unconscious." Shino explained as Lee began fidgeting whilst the kikai crawled into his clothes.

"I'll just have to be exceptionally fast." Rock Lee smiled as he unbuckled his ankle weights and dropped them on the ground, releasing a massive cloud of smoke as he did. Rock Lee zoomed into Shino at light speed but ended up knocking himself out against a wall. "I knew there was a a possibility that after a month of training you would become so fast my bugs wouldn't be enough so I had Kurenai sensei teach me genjutsu, which I know you can't detect due to your inability to mold chakra." Shino told Lee as he was passing out.

"A genjutsu user, a bad match up for Lee. I guess it can't be helped, although in a real mission you can always break him out of genjutsu can't you Neji." Gai said, Neji nodding as he contemplated Sasuke's words about fate. "To change fate, one needs power." Neji thought. His thoughts were interrupted as Sakura shouted at Naruto for being so late.

"How did you pass instead of me anyway." Kiba wondered as Sakura hurled Naruto into the arena. Meanwhile Gaara floated in on a cloud of sand.

"Naruto. Be careful, I can sense my brother Shukaku inside the redhead. The one tails isn't as strong as me but he could still easily decimate an army of squishy humans such as you." Kurama warned Naruto.

"You're like me aren't you. A powerful demon. I guess we must kill each other to prove who's the strongest." Gaara said as a huge sand dome formed around him.

"We're not demons though. The demons are inside us, we're just their containers." Naruto yelled as he summoned one thousand shadow clones which all pounded on the dome of sand repeatedly until it cracked, revealing a mix between Gaara and Shukaku himself.

A genjutsu descended over the whole arena as Gaara broke out of it and ran off into the woods. Itachi went to wake up his students but found that they had already released the genjutsu. "Go help Naruto, Gaara is a formidable enemy." Itachi ordered as mist and sand ninja began attacking from all directions. The fourth kazekage pulled off his disguised and turned out to be Orachimaru. He leapt up onto the roof, where Hiruzen followed him.

"Water style hollow water dome jutsu." Kisame laughed as the two were surrounded by a massive dome of water. The water was infused with so much chakra not even the third hokage himself could break out of it. "Orachimaru!" Hiruzen cursed as he prepared to kill his former student.


	6. War

**computer broke so took a while**

Naruto chased after Gaara rapidly as his fellow jinchuriki transformed into Shukaku whilst smashing through the forest. "You ain't going anywhere." Kankuro said landing on the branch Naruto was jumping to and smashing it with his foot before leaping to the next one. As Naruto fell down Temari blew him through a tree with her fan. "Brat, you're gonna mess up the plan." Temari said.

"I say we kill him." Suigetsu chuckled, spitting at Naruto as he did.

"Naruto go on, we'll take them." Sasuke said suddenly as he and Shino arrived.

"Hey, we aren't letting you go anywhere." Kankuro claimed when purple smoke filled the surrounding forest. When it cleared only Sasuke and Shino remained.

"This is going to be easy, 3 v 2." Suigetsu laughed as he turned into water and hurtled into Shino knocking him aside.

Kankuro unwrapped his puppet and sent it straight as Sasuke, who incinerated it with ease. "Temari, I'm leaving this to you." Kankuro whimpered.

"You know what happens when fire and wind mix." Temari retorted.

Sasuke jumped up and landed in between them, destroying them in taijutsu with relative ease when a crow landed on his shoulder. He grunted before following it to wherever it was flying.

More of Shino's bugs fell to the ground, their wings unable to flutter when completely drenched. "Do you really think you stand a chance?" Suigetsu taunted as he began the hand signs for the water dragon jutsu. Shino remained silent and pulled out a scroll, unsealing a powerful weapon.

"That belong to Zab- WHERE DID YOU GET THAT!" Suigetsu shouted angrily.

"We defeated Zabuza easily. It would be illogical to leave a weapon this powerful unguarded so I took it for later use." Shino declared, swing the sword at Suigetsu who easily dodged.

"That belongs to me." Suigetsu screamed, grabbing the sword when it became a swarm of insects that drained his chakra rapidly as he tried to swat them off. Shino sliced Suigetsu in half, although the mist ninja had quick reactions so was a puddle when he got divided into two. "Always have an ace in the hole." Shino noted as he sealed the water into a large scroll and carried it back to the village.

"Look, it's Gaara." Naruto told Kiba as he saw the boy standing on top of Shukaku, sleeping on the beast. "I can get up the easy." Kiba bragged as he leapt onto Shukaku and began dashing up him. A huge tail swung by, smashing Kiba across the forest.

"It probably isn't very smart, I'll fool that monster with my genjutsu." Sakura promised as she entered Shukaku's mind.

"Foolish human, you think your mind is stronger than mine. You will suffer for that mistake." Shukaku telepathically communicated, shattering her genjutsu with so much chakra Sakura herself was put to sleep.

"My friends. You hurt them. I will defeat you demon." Naruto vowed as he drew on the nine tails chakra. "Summoning jutsu." Naruto gasped biting his thumb, appearing on top of a giant toad soon afterwards.

"Jiriaya tells me you know fire style." Gamabunta croaked when he saw the enemy in front of him.

"I do, what about it?" Naruto huffed impatiently as Shukaku began bounding towards him.

"Toad oil bomb." Gamabantu said, showering the approaching beast in highly flammable goo.

"Fire style, great fireball jutsu." Naruto decided after some thinking.

"Damn you Kurama." Were the last words Shukaku said before he was hit by an explosion bigger than he was. When the ash cleared all that remained was Gaara.

"Uzumaki Naruto, your friends give you power. Can you be mine?" Gaara said as he passed out, his sand cushioning his fall.

"Orachimaru. You killed Hiruzen and for that you will pay." Itachi told the snake Sannin.

"Will I know?" Orachimaru cackled.

"You have no arms and have exhausted most of your chakra, how do you expect to defeat me. Besides I have proven stronger than you at full capacity anyway." Itachi told him as he prepared to kill him with a Kunai.

"Maybe not on my own but can you handle 3 other s rank ninja as well?" Orachimaru questioned as Kisame, Sasori and Deidara appeared.

"Itachi, how can we help." Asuma said as he, Kakashi, Kurenai and again arrived with him.

"Kisame you deal with those 4." Sasori ordered, waving his tail threateningly.

"Fine." Kisame grunted as he went to face the leaf Jonin that approached.

"Amateratsu." Itachi said, burning away the Hiruko puppet that covered Sasori's mechanical body. "Sasori, your art is nothing compared to mine." Deidara bragged as he release four explosive clay birds at Itachi, which the Uchiha detonated mid air with shurriken rapidly. Orachimaru tried to run away in the chaos but Itachi leapt after him, decapitating him with the Susanoo sword. Deidara jumped on a huge clay bird and took the skies, bombarding Itachi with ranged attacks.

"100 puppet summoning. All of these puppets are coated with poison so deadly a gram would kill you." Sasori added, as Itachi had trouble dodging the long range assaults even with his Sharingan. "Susanoo." Itachi said, cleaving away the puppets when a huge clay snake wrapped around him, exploding and disintegrating his Susanoo armour. "This puppet uses the iron sand of the third Kazekage, all of it coated in my marvellous toxins." Sasori showed off, summoning another puppet that tested Itachi's reflexes as individual grains of sand swarmed around him.

"Water clone jutsu." Kisame said, summoning four water clones.

"Water prison jutsu." Each clone said, trapping the Jonin they were fighting against and holding them in place while Kisame went to help fight Itachi.

Itachi was too busy dodging and it was too late when he felt Samehada shredding through his skin. He created four crow clones, three of which distracted his enemies with Tsukoyomi whilst the fourth ripped out his Mangekyo Sharingan and snuck away. Samehada minced Itachi's heart. Weakened by the very powerful genjutsu, Kissme dispelled his water clones unable to sustain them. Sasori picked up an unconscious Deidara and the three ran off before the Konoha Jonin could get to them.

"Brother, why have you summoned me." Sasuke grunted as he came face to face with Itachi.

"I died. Use these eyes for the good of the leaf." The crow clone said, pinning Sasuke to a tree and plucking out his Sharingan before pushing the Mangekyo Sharingan into the empty sockets, applying medical ninjutsu to seal them in. Sasuke screamed in pain the whole time.

"Die? How?" Sasuke asked, thinking it was some kind of joke.

"The Akatsuki.. An enemy even I can't defeat alone, you will need the power of your friends to defeat them." The crow clone warned.

"No, I'm stronger than you and I will prove it by singlehandedly killing the entire origination when I'm seventeen. You may have murdered our clan but you will never be the most powerful Uchiha in our family." Sasuke growled, slamming the clone, causing it to disperse into a flock of crows. Itachi sighed in the after life.

The village was rebuilt over several weeks. Having learnt of the death of the fourth Kazekage and the mind control of the fourth Mizukage, the leaf made peace with both villages, demanding The Executioner's blade as an offering of peace. During the invasion the forbidden scroll went missing but was soon found and it was presumed that it was displaced in the invasion. Shikamaru, for his insane intelligence as well as his ability to assess when to retreat from battle was promoted to Chuunin immediately, although as the exam was not finished promoting anyone else could not be justified.

"Itachi died?" Naruto yelled when Kakashi told him the news.

"Yeah, I saw it myself. He will be dearly missed but there is the pressing issue of the reformation of your team." Kakashi mentioned calmly.

"I have to go." Naruto meekly replied as he trudged off depressed instead of listening to the Jonin, to schocked to care about anything else.


	7. Aftermath

"Sasori my man, what's up." Deidara asked as the red haired puppet approached.

"Suigetsu has been captured by the leaf and being Orachimaru's favourite toy, we fear he knows too much about our plan. He wouldn't snitch in us immediately but it won't be long before the leaf can torture it out of him." Sasori mentioned.

"And you want me to rescue him? You'd be much better at this than me. Too busy trying to become a real boy? " Deidara joked.

"My puppets need repairing but I can still poison you so that you die a slow and painful death." Sasori threatened as Deidara took a nervous step back.

"Bye Pinocchio." Deidara snickered before jumping on a clay bird that carried him away.

Jiriaya sat down in front of the village elders. "I would not make a very good hokage. I am the master of battle and women but this is beyond me." The toad sage bragged whilst being humble.

"We have no other choice. No other ninja of this village possesses enough strength to protect the village." Homura said.

"I could take on the role of both Hokage and Root leader." Danzo suggested.

"You are excellent as leader of the root but Hokage is a completely different job. The Anbu are machines who only think about the task given but ordinary ninja cannot be treated the same way." Koharu explained.

"When Itachi was attacked by the Akatsuki four of our top Jonin were stopped by a single ninja, a product of the single minded thinking of the 'bloody mist.' No high ranking root member of mine would be caught so easily by the water prison jutsu." Danzo shouted angrily.

"Kisame is an immensely powerful s rank ninja whose clones could crush your strongest root members with ease. He is stronger than Orachimaru, our most powerful missing ninja. He has jinchuriki level chakra reserves without the hindrance of a corrupt beast sealed inside of him and the most powerful blade we know of. The rest of the Akatsuki are on similar or stronger levels to him, I don't have much Intel on their leader but he is powerful enough to bring that traitorous snake bastard Orachimaru, a terrorist, the greatest swordsman of the mist and a physics path who uses other people as puppets." Jiriaya ranted angrily,

"Who would you suggest takes over than?" Danzo challenged.

"Tsunade. I can find her and convince her to take up the position, she is stronger and smarter than me." Jiriaya told the council.

"You have one month. If you fail we'll have to consider other candidates. Danzo, you cannot be both a light and a shadow but several clan leaders seem semi capable if young Jiriaya here refuses and fails to bring back Tsunade." Koharu said.

"Do you know why we're here." Naruto groaned at his squad mates unable to wait quietly any longer.

"If I knew don't you think I would tell you." Kiba growled back.

"Itachi will be dearly missed but training must continue. Until more permanent arrangements can be made I'll take over your training. This is my squads usual training ground and they'll be coming here soon. As they know the environment better than you do I'll give you the element of surprise, ambush them and take them down before they defeat you." Kurenai instructed.

"I don't need to hide. I'll take them head on." Naruto arrogantly claimed puffing out his chest. Sakura shoved him into the ground whilst Kiba muttered 'Idiot.'

"This reflects on all of us Naruto. Don't make me look bad by standing in clear view." Sakura vainly but correctly advised and with a stern look from Kurenai Naruto reluctantly trudged off into the bushes.

"Where is that blonde twerp." Jiriaya said to himself as he prepared to leave, planning to take his apprentice with him, when he was approached by one of the last people he expected to see.

"Jiriaya sensei, one of the legendary Sannin, please take me on your search for the next Hokage and train me in your powerful techniques." Neji humbly pleaded.

"Why would I take you Hyuuga brat, can't your clan train you. Have you seen my student Naruto anywhere." Jiriaya demanded. Neji activated his Byakugan.

"He's training in the woods nearby with Kurenai sensei. Please take me instead, I've learnt all Hiashi is willing to teach to a branch member of the family." Neji begged.

"Sorry kid, you're not my problem." Jiriaya told him and began striding off. Neji thought quickly before replying "My byakugan will be very helpful finding Tsunade. Besides Naruto would probably learn better with friends than on his own, he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who enjoys a solitary lifestyle." Neji faked respect for his colleague in his attempt to learn from the greatest teacher he could find in the village.

"No deal… Wait you have the Byakugan right. So you could use it for, you know, research?" Jiriaya hinted, making various suggestive hand signs. Neji swallowed his pride, if he was going to gain the power to defeat Sasuke and overthrow Hiashi he would need to do this.

"If a sage as wise as yourself deems it important I'll be willing to offer my services." Neji forced out, his first attempt at flattery in a long long time. Jiriaya thought carefully about how useful the Byakugan would be and desperate not to let Danzo take power,vreluctsntly agreed. "We leave in an hour, meet me by the gates then." Jiriaya said.

Shino was walking through the trees when he was surrounded by purple smoke. The buzzing of his bugs alerted him to Kiba's presence and he leapt out of the way of several Kunai flying through the air. As the smoke cleared the two came face to face. "An Inuzuka without is dog, I sympathise with your plight, I cannot imagine life without my bugs aiding me in both battle and general situations. We are allied and you bear no grudge that I know of so I assume this is a training exercise. Yes, your sensei is recently deceased and so Kurenai is using you to test our strength. I understand your handicap but it would be misinformative of me to hold back, I must fight you at my full capacity." Shino deduced logically as a swarm of bugs arose from him and flew towards Kiba. "Earth style, earth wall." Kiba said, summoning a wall of rock to hide him from Shino's swarm before dashing off into the trees.

Soon enough Kiba doubled back and saw Shino jumping through the trees. He released another smoke bomb before using the head hunter jutsu on the unsuspecting bug-user. "Submit." Kiba demanded as he held a Kunai to Shino's neck. A swarm of bugs surrounded the Kunai as the Aburame was revealed to be a clone and soon enough Kiba's chakra resources were nearly empty.

"I believe you should submit. Your chakra levels have been depleted too far for the use of jutsu and in hand to hand combat whilst I admit that you are stronger and faster my bugs will turn the tide of the battle in my favour easily." Shino counter argued.

"How did you find me?" Kiba inquired.

"When we first chatted, before I sent that massive swarm after you I planted a single bug on you. When I was informed of you're approach planning around a surprise attack was -" Shino brgan before Kiba launched himself at the Aburame in the middle of his monologue. However, weighed down by the bugs crawling all over him, he was slow enough for Shino to knock him out with a well time punch to the head.

Hinata heard footsteps and activated her Byakugan before instantly reading and dispelling the genjutsu Sakura placed on her. "Sakura, my By-by-aku-kugan allows me to easily tell when I am in a gen-genjutsu. Why are you trying to use it on m-m-me though?" Hinata nervously asked as Sakura approached.

"Sparring exercise your sensei set." Sakura admitted before launching into a flurry of Taijutsu against Hinta. Hinata yelped as she weaved through the attacks before trying to hit Sakura with her gentle fist. Sakura leapt back and started throwing Kunai at Hinata, who could easily dodge them.

"This isn't a vert fair fight. A-a-a genjutsu user is a bad matchup for a Hyuuga." Hinata apologised as she dodged three shurriken before grabbing two Kunai out of mid air and throwing them back at Sakura.

"Don't worry Hinata, I need to learn to defeat enemies who can see through my genjutsu." Sakura said as she rolled up her sleeves and ran to sucker punch Hinata.

"8 triagrams 32 pa-palms." Hinata squeaked as she jabbed Sakira repeatedly in the chest, soon shutting down enough chakra points that the pink haired girl collapsed to the ground. "I'm sorry." Hinata said when Sakura flipped into the air and tried to kick her in the face. Hinata instinctively grabbed Sakura's legs and slammed her too the ground before apologising for that too and asking for a truce. Y. strongest." Naruto yelled as he jumped in front of the raven haired boy.

"No, I have to train, you're not worth my time." Sasuke replied coldly.

"I'll just tell everyone you refused my challenge then." Naruto taunted with an obnoxious grin.

"I'll finish you off quickly." Sasuke replied as he launched off a fireball that burnt the shadow clone to a crisp. Naruto drew on Kuruma's chakra to summon a much larger one which cleared the nearby trees as Sasuke slid underneath it before throwing several shurriken at Naruto, who was forced to constantly dodge. Suddenly one of the shurriken he sidestepped was knocked at him when it collided with another one and pierced his arm causing minor bleeding. "This is what true ninja can do, a fool like you woul never achieve this." Sasuke contemptuously stated. "I have some tricks or my own." Naruto angrily retorted as he enhanced two Kunai with wind chakra and hurled them at Sasuke. Sasuke caught both of the, but they were sharp enough that his hands started bleeding even with indirect contact. Sasuke grimaced before staring into Naruto's eye and using his Tsukoyomi. Whilst the genjutsu only lasted 5 seconds Naruto witnessed Sasuke slaying all of his friends in front of him whilst he was helpless to do anything about it for a whole hour. When it was done a dejected Naruto collapsed to the ground panting.

"Now you know how it feels to have everyone you ever loved slaughtered mercilessly. Itachi did this at my age, and here I am wasting my time with pointless training. I'll avenge the Uchiha and if that meaning I have to grind you to dust I won't hesitate. Amaterasu." Sasuke ranted, concentrating greatly at the end. He had not masted the Mangekyo Sharingan, only able to keep the fire burning by focusing on its point of origin and was soon disrupted when Naruto launched a huge blast of wind at him.

"Itachi was protecting the village, it was his mission." Naruto roared back before summoning a giant road. It wasn't as big as Gamabunta but was about four times the size of Naruto. "Kid, you know fire style." The toad asked Naruto.

"Yep. 3,2,1, Ultimate fireball jutsu." Naruto cried as he launched a massive fireball into a stream of oil and enhanced it with wind. The explosion annihilated the terrain but Sasuke managed to protect himself with his Susanoo armour, the chakra bones cracking under the immense heat. Sasuke raised his Susanoo sword behind his back before throwing it at Naruto like a javelin, the piercing blade rupturing several organs as it peirced the Uzumaki. Anyone else would need immediate medical attention but with Naruto's regenerative prowess it was as simple as passing out. He awoke surrounded by the other 5 before Kurenai gave them a lecture. "Hinata, you are too nice to your enemy, you won't be able to defeat them with hugs and kisses. Sakura, your genjutsu is strong but if you come up against someone who can dispel it you are out of options and will lose the fight. Kiba, you're plans are good but you don't consider what to do if you come up against an unexpected problem. Shino, as you said yourself your taijutsu needs work and stop explaining everything to your enemy, just fight them. Sasuke and Naruto, you are both extremely powerful but your arrogance will allow much weaker ninja to cut you like butter." Was the feedback they received. "I know I got you to fight each other but we'll be conducting a joint mission so you'll have to learn how to work together." Kurenai added at the end, causing Naruto and Sasuke to glare at each other hatefully. Suddenly a huge explosion was seen and heard in the distance. "Stay here and get to know each other, I'll check it out." Kurenai instructed the ninja, squashing their eagerness to fight and dashed off.

"Sasuke doesn't like me and Shino is creepy. I know, I'll talk to Hinata she seems normal enough." Naruto thought before yelling hey to her.

"N-n-Naruto." Hinata replied turning crimson.

"You ok, got a temperature?" Naruto said feeling her forehead, causing the shy girl to faint.

Seeing the panic on Naruto's face Kiba told him not to worry, she was fine.

"Why did she faint then?" Naruto inquired.

"Because she is infat-" Shino began when Sakura punched him.

"Shino was about to say she is tired after all the training today and just needs some rest." Sakura sweetly smiled whilst kicking Shino in the ribs repeatedly.

"We have ways of making you talk, even considering your … capabilities, infact revolving around them." Ibiki said as an Anbu member entered the interrogation room, electricity crackling at his fingertips. Suddenly a hole was blown in the roof and Deidara swooped in. The tank Suigetsu was in shattered and the boy hopped onto Deidara's bird happily. "High five." Deidara asked but Suigetsu politely declined when he saw Deidara's hands licking their lips. Slightly depressed and looking down, Deidara looked to see the various Jonin staring at him from the ground. "You really should find ways of defending the air." He laughed as various long range jutsus were fired at him, some coming close but all ultimately failing.

"Summoning jutsu." Kakashi said, causing Pakkun to appear.

"Track him down and report what you learn back to me." Kakashi whispered as he pointed to the soaring animated clay in the distance. Pakkun sniffed around for a bit before sprinting off after his target stealthily.

"Lady Tsunade is in that casino." Neji told Jiriaya.

"Without you who knows how long it would've took me. I have tracking capabilities of my own but seeing through walls is amazing." Jiriaya mused, blood beginning to drop from his nose. The duo walked into the bar to find Tsunade and Shizune gambling away. "I really think you should stop lady Tsunade." Shizune fretted.

"You're not the boss of me." Tsunade shouted back chugging more sake down as she slammed down her cards, only for the dealer to sweep away more of her chips.

"Jiriaya, why are you here?" Tsunade said, leaving the table to speak to her former colleague.

"Hiruzen died and I want you to be the next Hokage." Jiriaya said clearly.

"Only a fool would want to be Hokage." Tsunade replied.

"Danzo is going to install a puppet if you don't." Jiriaya mentioned.

"I really think you should do this Tsunade, maybe it will stop… Reduce your gambling and drinking if you have something to do." Shizune advised and Tonton squeaked in agreement.

"No, it's a pointless job, looking what happened to the fourth Hokage." Tsunade replied irritated. That was when Neji had an idea which he whispered in Jiriaya's ear.

"How about a game of poker. If we win you become Hokage." Jiriaya offered.

"Ok but if you lose you have to pay my tab and any debts I have to this casino." Tsunade replied as she grabbed a deck of cards that wasn't being used, "and I know a Hyuuga when I see one, no using the Byakugan to help you. Shizune watch his eyes, make sure that boy there isn't cheating."

"And that's the game, I win, now leave me alone, and pay up." Tsunade said as she revealed her pair of aces that won her the game.

"Double or nothing." Jiriaya desperately called after her.

"I'm not playing another round of poker." Tsunade shouted back as she walked away.

"What if I can teach the kid a new jutsu by sunset Tommorow. I win and you become Hokage and pay your own debt, but if you win I'll give you thrice what you owe." Jiriaya asked her pleadingly.

"That's easy, you think I'd make such a stupid bet." Tsunade said before glaring when Shizune stifled a laugh.

"The rasengan. That's the jutsu I'll teach him." Jiriaya promised.

"That brat learn the Rasengan in one day, no way." Tsunade retorted.

"Then take the bet." Jiriaya begged her.

"Ok, I'll have your money by sunset." Tsunade cockily declared.

"What now?" Neji asked.

"We're screwed." Jiriaya explained in as few words as possible.


	8. Attack

"Lets go back and get my sword bastard." Suigetsu shouted at Deidara as he rode off into the sunset on the back of an explosive clay bird.

"Idiot we have goals to achieve." Deidara scolded, abusing his seniority to talk down on people, something he couldn't do whilst Sasori was around.

Suigetsu opened his mouth to reply when a squad of Anbu black ops surrounded the pair. "Kakashi was right, he said they were going towards the sand." One of the members told the others as they took offensive stances.

"They tracked you dumbass, you're slowing the whole operation down." Deidara angrily spouted as the tongues on his hands began furiously moulding clay.

"If I'm such a dumbass why did you bother to rescue me?" Suigetsu retorted cheekily.

"The Akatsuki doesn't need you alive, just not alive and in the hands of the enemy." Deidara explained calmly as he grabbed Suigetsu to strangle him. Not wanting to initiate on an S-rank threat the Anbu waited patiently for the perfect movement to strike. As the Hozuki predictably liquidated the mouth on Deidara's hand spewed clay into him causing it to dissolve rapidly. Suigetsu, when he realised what was up, turned back into human form but it was too late.

"A living bomb. The ultimate art." Deidara said as he slammed Suigetsu off his clay bird and flew off. The Anbu started hurling shurriken at the weaving Deidara but their captain shouted 'Get back' as Suigetsu was detonated, creating a massive crater and several trees were incinerated whilst others were sent flying all over the place.

"Deidara has gotten himself into a significant amount of trouble it seems." Zetsu reported.

"Shouldn't his partner Sasori be with him?" One of the Pains asked intrigued.

"Sasori is repairing his puppets and is unable to aid in combat." Zestu explained informatively.

"Send Hidan, he seems perfect for a mission like this." Another Pain decided before Zetsu returned to the earth to find the Jashinist.

"How powerful is the Ransengan?" Neji said to Jiriaya as they sipped their respective drinks at the bar.

"Used correctly the only limits are the amount of chakra you have and how well you can control it, used incorrectly, it could barely smash a log." The sage explained.

"Chakra Control, I am pretty adept in that area." Neji proudly asserted, hoping to win the bet.

"Even so there is no way you can master this in a day. Instead we have to fool Tsunade into thinking you've learnt it." Jiriaya said.

"We got completely destroyed by them." Naruto sulked as he started on his eight bowl of ramen.

"Shino completely outsmarted me." Kiba groaned.

"I was no match for Hinata." Sakura admitted.

"We have to get stronger. I'll never be hokage if I can't even beat Sasuke in a fight." Naruto grumbled.

"But without Itachi we have got no idea what to do." Kiba summed up.

"We need to find a new sensei, anything Kurenai teaches us she would have probably already taught them." Sakura figured out.

"Someone powerful, someone like," Kiba stopped talking as he sniffed the air, seeking out the intimidating scent upon him or sheer force, "that guy over there."

"That's Kakashi, the son of the white fang. He is one of the strongest ninja in the village." Sakura recalled from her extensive studying of the village.

"Camashi! Katanshi!" Naruto began called when Sakura punched him into the ground.

"It's Kakashi you idiot." Kiba told him. Kakashi meanwhile was lip reading their whole conversation and the prospect of sensei did not appeal to him. A simple genjutsu would do.

Naruto saw Kakashi burst into flames violently as his melted flesh seeped into the ground. Kiba smelt overwhelming smoke as well as roasting flesh. Sakura, use to breaking genjutsu considering she used them herself, heard the footsteps of a man running from responsibility. Getting a new sensei would be hard.

"You didn't have to kill all of them." Deidara reiterated wiping the blood off his cloak.

"You're just like that bitch Konan never lets me fucking do anything fun. Jashinist needs fucking sacrifices." Hidan said, annoyed that another Akatsuki member didn't respect his religion.

"We could have captured the one tail by now." Deidara moaned as the two walked into the sand village, an unlikely partnership even by Akatsuki standards.

"We were warned of your approach." Gaara said as he descended on a cloud of sand, his siblings at his side.

"And what the fuck are you gonna do about it." Hidan challenged.

"Let me take him, you deal with the other one." Temari said as she unveiled her fan. Hidan's huge scythe flew out at Temari barely scraping her skin as her amazing reflexes allowed her to dodge with significant ease. Or so Hidan made it seem.

"You think your fan is gonna hurt me, I'm god's vessel." Hidan laughed as he saw Temari infusing chakra into it. "We'll see about that." Temari said as she released a massive wave of wind at Hidan which started a mini sandstorm but barely did anything to hurt the Jashinist.

"My turn." Hidan said as he used the blood on his scythe to draw a ritual circle while praying. Temari wasn't familiar with his jutsu but wasn't prepared to let him get away with and released an even stronger wind, draining the majority of her chakra network as well as stilling the air beside and behind her as a deadly gale decapitated Hidan. However Temari suffered the same fate and unlinked Hidan she was not still alive afterwards.

"Temari." Gaara cried when he saw what happened.

"Go after Hidan. I can distract this guy for a while yet." Kankuro said as crow was hit by another explosives tarantula and more nuts and bolts were sent flying. As Hidan's body reached to grab his head a huge wall of sand appeared between the two separating them. Then tendrils of sand ripped of Hidan's other limbs before burying them in various places across the desert until only his head remained. "Fucking bastard." Hidan swore as sand slowly rose around his face and formed a coffin before it plunged into the ground.

Kankuro's puppets had now all been destroyed by a non stop explosive assault. He was desperately running as a long clay snake crawled after him and wrapped around his legs. "Your puppets are so dull, my art is glorious, instant, an explosion." Deidara mused as Kankuro was incinerated.

"You killed my siblings. You trespassed in my village. I will make you pay." Gaara warned Deidara as his rage built up to almost uncontrollable levels.

"Sorry kid, today isn't your day." Deidara joked as the two prepared to face off.

"I already said I won't be hokage." Tsunade said, causing the two leaf Anbu to reveal themselves. "Yes, we're here to make sure of that." Fu said as a scarecrow leapt down from the roof, armed with sharp blades to kill the Sannin. Tsunade effortlessly flicked the scarecrow to pieces with a single finger when black symbols erupted out of it and her conciousness was sucked into it. "This will be quick." Torune said as he sent his specialised swarm to finish off the job when Jiriaya and Neji burst into the alleyway.

"So this is Danzo's plan." Jiriaya gasped, his suspicions confirmed.

"I am clearly the best leader of the village. However since you won't see reason I'll have to take care of you as well." Danzo explained as he approached from behind.


	9. One gone

"Shadow clone jutsu." Jiriaya split into two and as one went to face Danzo the other went after Foo and Torune. Neji activated his Byakugan so he could join in the fight. A sharp blinding mass of chakra was sealed in the bandages of Danzo, obviously meant to hide something from sensory ninja but what was what Neji was wondering.

Jiriaya's clone went up against Foo and Torune. His long white hair suddenly hardened and sharpened before he fired off several miniscule projectiles that peirced the intensely poisonous bugs that had ventured off Torune's skin to kill Tsunade. Torune signalled too Foo who put his fingers around his forehead. "You'll never hit me with that slow jutsu." Jiriaya thought as he observed carefully for when the conciousness left Foo's eyes when Torune leapt at him and swung a punch which the Sannin easily blocked. Suddenly his skin turned purple but before the poison could overwhelm him sage chakra flowed through his arm healing it. "We only need one touch on him, he's a clone." Foo realised, still preparing to possess the Sannin. Torune held up three fingers, a signal Foo instantly realised, before feinting an attack on Jiriaya. Being highly battle worthy Jiriaya noticed the feint and seeing that Foo was in no position to hit him leapt forward when suddenly Foo turned to face his team mate and possessed Torune instead. Whilst Torune was feinting Foo had no intentions to pull back and managed to whack the shadow clone hard enough to turn it into dust.

Meanwhile the real Jiraiya had summoned Gamabunta to fight Danzo. As a large mass of oil was released from the massive toads mouth a humongous fireball collided with it and the lethal attack headed straight towards the Root leader, the intense heat causing the very air to shake around it. Danzo summoned up an immense amount of wind chakra to blow the jutsu into a nearby building, demolishing it absolutely. The blaring sound awoke Tsunade from her slumber. "Retreat." Danzo ordered his root members before looking at the Hyuuga. Out of his bandaged arm he fired a massive blade of winding. Neji rotated to deflect it when Foo took over his mind, the ultimate defence ironically rendering him helpless against that particular Yamanka technique. Torune picked up Foo's body and began to dash when he saw Tsunade chasing after him. He released a wave of poisonous bugs evenly so it was impossible to weave through them without making contact. Jiriaya leapt over the deadly insects and dispelled Gamabunta before summoning another toad around him and Torune blocking of the Aburame's escape. Realising he was trapped Torune's own poison insects intoxicated him, and he used his chakra to intensify the poison to power through the natural resistance he had built up to it over the years. His body disintegrated before Jiriaya had a chance to even try and catch and interrogate him. In the distraction Danzo had managed to substitute a shadow clone of his own with Foo's body and along with Foo in Neji's body they managed to escape from the battle untraced.

Deidara began getting irritated as Gaara's sand blocked all of his artistic masterpieces from even touching the boy. It would require a less beautiful approach to get past the ultimate defense. Deidara sprinkled explosive mines all throughout the desert in the sand, disgusting them among his constant assault of attacks. After Gaara mistakenly confirmed that Deidara had no way of penetrating his defenses he summoned enough sand to create a tsunami. As the huge wave formed behind him Deidara licked his lips and his hands, waiting till the perfect movement before detonating his mines. Sand rushed to defend Gaara before the Blonde could even finish his hand signs but that only worked to his advantage as the mines were brought all around Gaara, smashing through his sand armour and very nearly killing him. Deidara swooped down on his clay bird and picked up the 13 year old to unseal the beast once he got to the nearest hideout he could find. Imagining Konan's nagging voice for killing his partner he took a quick detour to unearth Hidans body parts and stick them back together.

"Took you fucking long enough." Hidan swore as Deidara flew off without him, then angrily he ran after the bird on clay foot.

Sasuke had only barely beat Naruto, he still wasn't strong enough. His eyes were so much faster than his body he felt helpless for most is his battles as his muscles to react to the information he had processes several times over already.. He needed to get faster before he could get stronger. That was why he had approached one of the largest cliffs he could find. He had walked up it with chakra for stamina purposes but now he had an entirely new exercise. He took a deep breath before he leapt on the cliff feet first and began dashing up it without chakra, making it 50 metres before he felt himself slipping. "Surely you could just your chakra to walk up their Uchiha?" A confused Lee interrupted, how had he got there without Sasuke noticing.

"Training. Faster." Sasuke grunted before he tried dashing again, making it 75 metres before he fell from the cliff and landed back at the bottom.

"Ah, what a youthful exercise, I must join you." Lee smiled, his eyes sparkling like budget fireworks before he pulled down his leg weights and started running up. In a flash Lee covered 200 metres of the cliff before he tripped on a rock jutting out of the cliff and gracefully fell back down to the ground. As Lee got ready to try again Sasuke activated his eternal Mangekyo Sharingan and took a much closer look at Lee's body to find out the secret to his speed before taking off after the green blur attempting to perfectly copy his movements and although he got higher than before he couldn't replicate the Taijutsu specialist's insane velocity. Whilst Chakra could be used for power and balance, pure speed was something Sasuke couldn't create. A sudden realisation hit Sasuke at that moment, his fire natured chakra would be useless in zooming up the cliff but by changing it to lightning and enhancing himself with it he could zip up the cliff like a bolt of lightning much fun aster than Lee ever could. The youthful green genin could only watch in wonder as a crackling Sasuke began to overtake him in a race to the top of the cliff. Lee could not lose in a contest of speed and soon opened the first gate allowing him to regain first place just as they reached the top off the cliff. "Not good enough." Sasuke mentally scolded as he intensified the electric chakra in his body and scaled down the cliff to try again.

Kisame entered into the bar, his huge black cloak covered in red clouds proudly flowing as a symbol of his untouchable power. Inside the building another cloaked figure even creepier than the man-fish he was dealing with sat at a table. "So, will you join us?" Kisame asked simply, deliberated vague with his words.


	10. The hunt begins

A man in a long blue robe with dark black hair relaxed peacefully in the forest. "I sense another presence, a strong one." A voice rattled in his head. Utakata yawned before jumping up into the nearest tree. A huge bandaged sword chopped through the tree as Kisame revealed to himself to his opponent before he followed up by trying to impale Utaka in the chest. However the six tails jinchuriki encompassed himself in a massive bubble as he floated out of the swords extensive range.

"Water Shark Jutsu." Kisame said running towards Utakata as three water sharks flew towards him, one of them piercing through the bubble protecting him. 'Hiding in mist technique." Kisame called out as Utakata was surrounded by a powerful fog that completely obscured his vision. He responded by releasing chakra packed bubbles in all directions, straining his ears to tell if any of them popped so that he could attack in that direction. Kisame could easily manipulate the water they were made from though and used them to his advantage to initiate the water prison jutsu with unreal speed. Utaka began releasing waves of chakra to break through the jutsu with brute force but Kisame used a Samehada to absorb it all until a limb Utakata was left hanging in the ball of water. Kisame smirked and back up as Utakata's skin paled and bits of it started drooping towards the ground like slime.

Soon enough the youth had become a giant slug much bigger than the forest that contained it, destroying trees that touched it with its highly corrosive skin. "My turn." Kisame's new partner said as they flicked of their hood revealing a malicious smile and tinted glasses. Kabuto consumed his earlier prepared sacrifice as he used the reincarnation jutsu to summon the first Hokage. "As soon as Orachimaru died I accessed his research on this jutsu. Improvement was trivial." Kabuto grinned as the first Hokage summoned four massive wooden pillars that held the beast down, repressing its power immensely. "Sealing time." Kisame laughed as he got ready to watch the young boy truly know the meaning of chakra exhaustion. "What about the other one?" Kisame questioned as he contacted the other Akatsuki members.

"My team will not let you down." Kabuto assured, cackling slightly demonically at the mentrion of them.

Yugito was Calmy meditating at the top of one of the tallest mountains in the land of Stone when she was disturbed by four sets of footsteps. With catlike reflexes she drew two Kunai and prepared to eliminate whoever was coming at her. Four ninja wearing headbands of a village she didn't recognise and long black and red coats charged at her. Yugito's threw the Kunai to distract them whilst her claws extended from her hands and she span round, slashing all four of them as their blood stained the floor. The wounds were deep enough to be fatal but soon enough black lines erupted from the groups shoulders and spread all across their bodies and the deep gashes soon became small cuts.

"You think you're weak attacks can hurt us you piece of trash." Tayuya mocked as she whipped out her flute and started playing a tune. Yugito leapt at her to knock the flute out of her hand but was knocked to the floor by a sticky web Kidomaru released swiftly. As her claws allowed her to rip through the web she found her muscles paralysed as a sickening tune rang through her ears. "Drain her chakra, we need to keep her alive for now." Sakon ordered Jirobo, who grabbed hold of Yugito's arms and began absorbing her massive chakra reserves. Yugito smirked as she called upon the two tails chakra and channeled it into Jirobo's hands. The potent tailed beast chakra quickly filled his body as the massive man stumbled away from her, passing out as the dangerous chakra overloaded his system. Now awakened, Matatabi released Yugito from Tayuya's genjutsu, allowing the jinchuriki to release a firefly hairball. Tayuya ducked it but it turned into a mouse and chased back after the flutist, exploding and disentegrating half her face as it rendered her unconscious.

Suddenly Yugito was pelted by four golden arrows that knocked her off the mountain. Sakon jumped off after her and grabbed her arms whilst wrapping his legs around hers as they fell. Yugito attempted to over power him but a second pair of arms came out of Sakon's chest and began pummelling her to prevent her from wriggling free. As they approached the ground a second pair of legs reached out of Sakon's body and allowed him to stand on the mountain side as Yugito smashed into the ground with enough force to kill a normal person. Upon and Sakon separated and along with Kidomaru and Kimimaro used the Four Black Fogs formation to trap Yugito as they transported her to the Akatsuki base to have her beast removed.

Jiriaya, Tsunade and Danzo argued over his assassination attempt with the elders. "I am clearly the best candidate for Hokage, I was only doing what I had to." Danzo grimaced through clenched teeth.

"You can't trust someone like Danzo to be Hokage." Tsunade argued back, her face red with anger.

"No one else is capable of taking the job." Danzo stated.

"I can do it, I was trained by lord third." Tsunade blurted out as Jiriaya silently cheered. As Danzo looked at the faces of the other elders he knew who they would vote for "Under the circumstances I had no choice." Danzo explained before hobbling off, allowing Tsunade to take up office. "Foo, how's our new recruit doing?" Danzo asked once he got back to the root headquarters. "Neji wasn't initially cooperative but he's learning fast." Foo said causing Danzo to smile, maybe something good could come of this.

"Where am I going now? Will I learn a new super awesome jutsu? Will I become a Chuunin, a Jounin, a Kage?" Naruto enthusiastically cheered when the sage mentioned a trip to a far off land.

"Look, What I'm about to tell you is an s rank secret, understand?" Jiriaya questioned and when he received a nod told Naruto "The s rank ninja that killed your sensei are hunting you down to kill you and take the nine tails. To beat them you'll have to learn to control it before they find you but even I can't teach you that fast enough. They already killed three Jinchuriki and will be coming for the rest of you as well. That's why we're sending you to the mist village, where you'll train under Yagura, the most powerful Jinchuriki alive." Jiriaya mentioned.

"The footprints continue this way, the pair on the right are fakes, they're identical when the earlier footprints show a slight difference in the shape of his feet." Sasuke said, his Sharingan allowing him to follow an almost invisible trail. Team 8 continued on through the dark labrinth of tunnels. Suddenly a lone bug landed on Shino's finger. The Aburame pointed into one of the caves. "I see them!" Hinata exclaimed, "They're hiding to ambush us." Hinata explained quietly. Kurenai prepared a genjutsu and whilst the enemy were distracted team 8 managed to kill all of them, or so they fought. As Kurenai congratulated her team for a job well done thousands of needles punctured her substitution as two Amegakure ninja appeared from the shadows. The second one opened his mouth releasing a chakra dense mist that neither the Byakugan or Sharingan could pierce. Shino's bugs quickly worked on draining the chakra used in the jutsu to evaporate the fog but by the time it was gone his two team mates were missing. The bugs he kept planted on them just incase had died. "Kurenai sensei, where our Sasuke and Hinata?" Shino calmed asked keeping the worry out of his voice.

"They can't have gone that far but it could be dangerous for you to interfere, watch the entrance whilst I try and find them." Kurenai decided as she tied a scroll to the leg of a messenger bird which she sent to get back up as fast as possible.


	11. Training

Sasuke and Hinata awoke to find themselves tied up in a dark gloomy cave. "Amateratsu." Sasuke muttered burning the rope that held them captive as the two of them got up to find their way out of the cave. Suddenly out of nowhere a man with an orange mask, a long cloak and one Sharingan appeared. "I think you'll be staying here." Obito said threateningly.

"Gai Sensei. Are you informed of the situation?" Shino asked as he saw Konoha's taijutsu master show up to help in their mission. The man nodded. "My bugs will lead you to Kurenai." Shino advised as a small swarm flew off down the tunnels and Gai cautiously went after it. Eventually Gai reached Kurenai who was preparing a genjutsu in her mind before she projected it onto others. "There are 6 of them in there, strength unknown." Kurenai mentioned before she and again burst into the room and she inflicted a powerful genjutsu on the six rain ninja that face her. "Fourth gate of pain." Gai grunted as he slammed his foot into the nearest Amegakure shinobi snapping his neck before he grabbed hold of another ninja and cracked his skull against the wall. The remaining four managed to break out of the genjutsu, two of them retreating back whilst the other two rushed at Gai wrecklessly. Kurenai cast another intricate genjutsu on the two that were standing back to prevent against from being hit by a surprise attack whilst she ran up to them with a Kunai.

The Amegakure ninja in front of Gai released chains from their hands which wrapped around his legs as the ninja behind him quickly drew a poisoned katana and tried to impale it into the Green Beast's back. "Fifth gate of limit." Gai growled before leaping up dragging the ninja who held the chains along the ground to his old location, where the katana dripping with deadly toxins peirced him instead. Gai then came down on the swordsman with a powerful axe kick that caused fatal brain damage.

Kurenai stabbed through one of the Amegakure ninja underneath her genjutsu but the other one almost killed her with a shurrriken she barely dodged. Kurenai prepared to recast her genjutsu when she realised the first one hadn't been released and duck underneath three more shurriken. "Your visual genjutsu are useless against me." The Amegakure ninja confidently pronounced as Kurenai threw another Kunai at him. He leapt back and watched it sail over his face when he heard a sizzling sound. He fell to the ground and the paper bomb explosion only smashed his goggles. "Ha, you think that will help you." He laughed as he got back up and Kurenai peered right into his eyes. Thinking quickly, she increased the intensity of the red glow in her eyes to shock him but his pupils didn't even dilate. "You're blind." Kurenai realised.

"So genjutsu is useless against me, looks like you lost this fight." The blind man cackled as he cracked his knuckles.

"On the contrary. When one sense is lost the others are heightened." Kurenai smirked as her enemy suddenly heard an extremely piercing scream. As he fumbled to release the genjutsu, a skill he had never once had to use, Kurenai cut through him with a Kunai he never heard coming.

"Eight triagrams 64 palms." Hinata said as she began attempting to block of Obito's chakra points, but as she jabbed him her byakugan noticed his body disappearing inbetween each attack before returning afterwards. As she tried to hit him weigh more than 64 times she depleted her chakra reserves extremely before Tobi pulled out a chain and ran right through her. She started pivoting to rotate before realising even her ultimate defence could be phased through. "Hinata." Sasuke cried out as he shoved her out the way, Obito's chain cutting off his left arm. As Sasuke clutched it in pain a black crow forced its way up his throat and stared into Tobi's lone visible eye. With his mind being controlled by Shisui's eye, Obito decapitated himself with kamui. "Itachi!" Sasuke cursed under his breath as he ripped off his shirt and used it to tied up his wound before he lost any more blood.

Yagura woke up in his bed as he was snapped out of the genjutsu that had been controlling him for the past few years. He looked at the sun and realised the arrival of the Jinchuriki would be imminent and the Akatsuki would be preparing an ambush. He would need to take more precautions.

Black tendrils grabbed hold of Han's arms and legs as he was battered with missiles from one of the six pains. "Don't damage him too much, the bounty is very high." Kakashi complained as Han passed out with burns all over his arms and legs. "Don't worry, you'll get your money Kakazu… plus the money from Roshi." Pain added remembering their earlier capture. Zetsu popped out of the ground at that exact moment. "Obito has been killed sir. Our plan to use Yagura to capture the seven and nine tails has failed. The location of the eight tails is still unknown." Zetsu informed his leader before disappearing back into the ground. "Well it seems we'll have to force the others to come to us." Pain decided as he began preparing for phase 2 of the plan.

Sasuke sealed the last of the essentials needed into a scroll. He was once stain proven to be weaker than Itachi, he wasn't even in the top three of Sharingan users in the world. To get stronger would take something drastic. "We strive to better ourselves as well, it is only reasonable for us to join you on your journey." Shino said whilst adjusting his glasses.

"Yes, next time I won't be a burden to you." Hinata promised, blushing as Sasuke's Sharingan seem to stared into her soul.

"Fine." Sasuke groaned before he pointing out a particular mountain on a map.

"Kurenai sensei. Please take me as your apprentice." Sasura begged.

"You know I specialise in genjutsu?" Kurenai questioned and when she received a nod from Sakura a smile formed on her lips.

"Meet me here at 3am." Kurenai said before turning into a flurry of leaves that dissolved into the ground.

"So this is Kirigakure." Naruto stared in awe at the misty dark city, contrasting to the bright and cheerful Konoha in every possible way. "Intruder, kill him." Someone suddenly cried out as they pulled out a giant sword and swung it at Naruto. "Coral Palm." Yagura yelled as corals ran along the ground and peirced through the man attempting to kill Naruto showering the pavement with his blood. Noticing Naruto's shock Yagura introduced himself as the fourth Mizukage and explained they didn't take kindly to traitors in these parts. The two Anbu escorting Naruto left, satisfied by his delivery. "The training will be harsh. You will be fatally wounded but Kurama will save you and you will achieve perfect control over him. The seven tails jinchuriki has already arrived." Yagura mentioned as he grabbed Naruto's hand a dragged him through the maze of islands as if he knew them like the back of his hand, which he did. "Wait, you're the fourth Mizukage, you're younger than me." Naruto exclaimed. Yagura silently raged by picking up Naruto and dunking him into a small lake before covering the entire surface in coral. "Consider this your first training exercise." Yagura shouted before walking away to find Fuu, someone who actually respected his position.


	12. Civil War

2 years later a much more powerful Naruto along with Fu and Yagura walked through the forest. "Where are we going now shrimp." Naruto asked, using his growth spurt to taunt Yagura. "Ooh, are we going to meet that other jinchuriki." Fu asked excitedly.

"No, the cloud still don't trust us with his position. We are returning to Konoha." Yagura explained watching a huge smile form upon Naruto's face. The blonde dashed rapidly of using nine tails chakra to boost his speed to unnatural levels. Fu sprouted wings and along with Yagura sped up to catch up with him before the Mizukage informed him of the whole situation. "Konoha has been plagued by a dangerous civil war for the past month. Danzo and Tsunade fight for the seat of Hokage and the entire village is divided in their loyalties." Yagura explained as they neared the gates of the village that Naruto was born and raised in. "Tsunade hired us to end the fight quickly and decisively, Danzo prepares to fight from the shadows but we have intel suggesting a massive co-ordinated attack will be tried tommorow." Yagura informed.

"No one can match our combined power." Fu confidently asserted as she grew a second pair of wings and pulled a head of the group eager to prove herself. Soon enough the fast travelling ninja arrived inside the village. Yagura created a cloud of mist as they entered which hid their presse ces entirely as the stealthily made their way to the Hokage tower where they found Tsunade nervously waiting. As Yagura dispersed the mist relief came over the Sannin's face and she began discussing with Yagura the finer details of the battle.

Not prepared to endure such a boring meeting Naruto returned to his house when a blur collided with him sending him flying into a wall. "Naruto." Kiba grinned ferally as Naruto got back up and swung a punch that the Inuzuka dodged with ease. "Follow me." Was also Kiba said before bounding away causing Naruto to chase him wildly until the pair of them saw Sakura and a Tsunade meditating in the middle of a field. "They're in the middle of an intense genjutsu battle." A third voice explained. Naruto turned round to see Sasuke Uchiha, one of his arms was replaced by a bony purple skeleton and the other had Hinata hugging it tightly. "Hinata and Sasuke?" Naruto quizzically asked.

"I'll fill you in later." Kiba said.

"Yeah, where are Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino." Naruto yelled loud pissing off the person standing directly behind him.

"Did you forget about me?" A hooded figure with dark glasses whispered creepily as bugs began slowly pouring out his body and ominously surrounding Naruto. "Of course not, you're…" Naruto struggled for about a minute before dispersing in a puff of smoke as the real one crept away.

Naruto woke up that morning to the sounds of clicking metal and explosions. "Someone is trying to kill you." Kuruma, now tamed by Naruto, warned him as he flipped out of bed and landed in front of three root members. Three clones spawned around Naruto and leapt at the respective Root whose fast reflexes allowed them to dispel the clones in half a second. However they weren't shadow clones, having been created with the corrosive tailed beast chakra that burned through the Root as Naruto chased out onto the battlefield where he saw Sasuke, Shino and Hinata heavily outnumbered by Anbu assaulting them from all sides. "Fire and Wind style wind boosted fire dragon." Naruto roared as a huge flaming pillar flew out of his mouth and manoeuvred its way through the crowd of Anbu incinerating half of them on the spot whilst the others were able to get out of the way.

"Ah, the power of a Jinchuriki is always a sight to behold. Join me and Konoha will be the strongest of the five villages and everyone in it will be safe." Danzo calmly smiled.

"Naruto, this is the most dangerous man in Konoha right now, do not underestimate him at all." Yagura informed his student as he and Fu arrived and prepared to unleash their powers upon the world. "Neji, Sai, eliminate them." Danzo ordered as three of his personal soldiers descended onto the battlefield.

"Byakugan." Neji activated as he came to face Naruto once more. As clones of Naruto filled the battlefield Neji dispatched them with a swarm of senbon that flew through the field with impeccable accuracy. Neji then released a shower of them infused with chakra at Naruto hitting and disabling all his chakra points. Neji smirked, it was originally Hinata's idea to use kenjutsu to improve their techniques but Neji had improved upon it further with his insanely fine chakra control allowing him to use senbon as extremely deadly weapons that only needed to get near you to put you out of commission. As he grabbed a Kunai and approached Naruto to finish him off he was surprised as Naruto's body grew nine red tails that swung at him. As Neji scrambled to avoid all nine of them at once he leapt backwards out of their range whilst throwing another wave of senbon but this time aiming for Naruto's vital organs to kill. The nine tails stopped lashing out to attack Neji and instead rotated rapidly to form a huge wave of wind that deflected Neji's senbon right back at him. As Neji began rotating to defend against his own attack Naruto performed the shadow shurriken jutsu and multiplied the senbon to several thousand as they battered Neji repeatedly, breaking through his defensive technique and filling the Hyuuga with holes as he quickly bled to death.

Fu released a bright sparkly powder into the air which blinded Sai before firing off a giant sticky web. Sai however heard it coming and jumped over it as he unveiled his canvas and began painting blindly. A huge inky tiger leapt out at Fu and began clawing at her viciously. Fu opened her mouth and released a thick piece of thread that bursted apart the inky tiger before she faced Sai again who was quickly painting a whole flock of birds that tried to dive bomb her to take her down. Fu fired off sticky webs at all of them as she flew towards Sai, using Kunai to prevent him from painting any more summons to attack her with. As Sai attempted to dodge her Fu pulled on the sticky threads she had fired off earlier which had attached themselves to various parts of the terrain and swung around huge lumps of earth which allowed her to hit Sai from all directions, pulverising him with the sheer force of her attacks.

Yagura did not try to kill Danzo with jutsu, instead using his staff to keep the man at bay with his extensive range. "You are a fool Yagura, you cannot defeat the Akatsuki without my power." Danzo gasped as one of the hooks one Yagura's staff dug into his bandaged shoulder. "I am the most powerful person in the world, I don't need the help of an old man like you." Yagura arrogantly bragged as he pushed the hook deeper into Danzo's arm before ripping it off completely. As Danzo clutched his bleeding arm Yagura grabbed his neck and coated it with coral. "This is not over." Danzo gasped with his last breath before Yagura heard the satisfying crunch of his collarbone when Danzo's body faded out of reality along with the severed arm on the floor.

"So this is where you've been hiding." Konan acknowledged as Hidan killed the last of the cloud ninja guarding Killer B on turtle island. "Lord Jashin, witness me." Hidan screamed to the heavens as massive amounts of paper rose up around Konan. "Fools think they'll beat me but, I ain't scare of no paper cut." Killer B rapped as he pulled out his sword and got ready to take on the two Akatsuki himself. As the sheets of paper flew at him he cut through all them shredding them like confetti. "That just makes my job easier." Konan smiled as she raised the tiny shreds of paper and sent them back at the eight tails jinchuriki. Two tentacles came out of Killer B's body to defend him but one of the miniscule pieces managed to draw a drop of blood and fly it over to Hidan. "Another sacrifice." Hidan cackled licking his lips as he prepared the ritual again.

"We need him alive." Koran reminded Hidan as he finished off the seal.

"At least let me have some fun." Hidan moaned when he noticed hundreds of paper bombs floating all around him. "Bitch." Was his last syllable before a giant explosion consumed his body. Konan watched Killer B's skin turn black and crisp as he passed out almost dead, her calculations were once again perfect.


	13. Art

"You can't trust Konoha, return to the village where it's safe." The takigakure jounin said to Fu as his squad tried to persuade her to return to her village amongst the confusion. The Akatsuki only had three more targets and they were all in one place so finding them wouldn't be very hard. "Ok then." A dejected Fu agreed as she took off with her allies in the middle of the night.

"This is just to easy." Kisame grinned sadistically as he and Kabuto tailed stealthily after them. Kabuto nodded before biting down on his thumb, drawing blood necessary for a summoning jutsu. Kisame did hand seals of his own surrounding the entire area with a massive water dome. Three huge purple snakes began spraying deadly poisons that very quickly dissolved throughout the water causing the drowning Takigakure ninja to drop dead completely. Only Fu survived by transforming into Chomei and flying high into the air where no one could reach her. Kisame silently cursed until he noticed a giant albatross waiting for him to mount.

"See, this is why I love fighting with you Kabuto. Orachimaru would have stopped at snakes but you see the use in lesser creatures as well." Kisame complimented as he hopped on the bird along with his partner and the two flew after the Chomei energetically.

"Orachimaru was obsessed with perfection and removed his imperfections, whilst I prefer to turn them into more strengths." Kabuto smiled as Kisame dismounted his bird and plunged Samehada through Chomei's exoskeleton draining away the enormous levels of chakra radiating of the seven tails. Eventually it turned back into a passed out Fu and along with Kisame and Samehada fell to the ground, Kabuto barely managing to catch them before he began setting up a barrier for the sealing process.

"In order to achieve ultimate peace more blood must be shed to gain the three and the nine tails, both residing in Konoha at the current moment. Eventually Yagura will return to his own village so we must take the initiative and attack Konoha now. We have three days till Suna, their closest ally can respond so we'll have to be fast." Nagato ordered.

"You had me at bloodshed." Hidan joked licking his lips enthusiastically.

"You'll have time to make sacrifices later, we need your help in capturing the Jinchuriki. Deidara and Sasori are best suited for the attack on Konoha itself whilst the rest of us will attack Naruto and Yagura together to assure success." Konan replied.

"Time to see who's art is better." Deidara challenged as the tongues on his hands began frantically licking his palm in anticipation for a fight.

The next morning Konoha was still celebrating its victory in the civil war when wave after waves of puppets attacked, salughtering any civilian foolish enough to get in their path and swarming upon the ninja who tried to stop them. At the same time bombs rained down from the sky oblitérons entire squadrons of ninja with their sheer explosive power. The fact that it only took two ninja to wreak so much havoc struck terror into everyone involved as whilst everyone knew the Akatsuki were powerful it was a completely different thing to see it in person.

"This matches all the intel I have on the Akatsuki. I've pinpointed the location of their base to somewhere within this region, the four of us in this room are the only ones who could really take them on." Jiriaya briefed, his happy demeanour replaced by a grim aura.

"No there is one other person who is strong enough to fight against them but he won't like working with us, Sasuke Uchiha." Naruto told them.

"If he won't help his village he should be executed as an example to others but we need all the manpower we can get right now." Yagura said pointing out his political ideologies.

"I'll do it but stay out of my way." Sasuke threatened as he appeared in a column of black flames.

"Let's get going then." Tsunade decided as the five of them set off into the forest to find the Akatsuki hideout.

"Yagura, surprised to see you with another Uchiha." Kisame taunted when he saw the five of them approaching.

"Hand over the jinchuriki or we will dispose of all of you." Kabuto casually added.

"Ha! What's a brat like you going to do, you're just Orachimaru's favourite pet." Tsunade laughed as she pulled up her sleeves getting ready to fight.

"I admit, you may be stronger than me but are you stronger than the four former Kage?" Kabuto asked innocently as four wooden boxes came out of the ground revealing Hashirama, Tobirama, Hiruzen and Minato.

"How? Minato and Hiruzen's souls were sealed in the belly of the reaper." Jiriaya said shocked too see his former master and student.

"Yes, Orachimaru's lesser version of the jutsu couldn't do what I can now." Kabuto bragged as the four Kage prepared to battle.

"Naruto and Sasuke, go on up ahead, we'll handle things down here." Yagura said as he used his staff to block Samehada from decapitating him and the two boys dashed off as fast as they could.

A long red scythe weaving through the trees to catch them brought Naruto and Sasuke to a stop as they descended to the ground where they found Hidan and Kakazu waiting. "We'll have to kill these guys before we progress further." Sasuke said coldly as he activated the Mangekyo Sharingan.

"Ha, Kakashi has five hearts and I'm completely immortal, good luck with that." Hidan bellowed as he retracted his scythe back to him.

"Leave them to me." Sasuke advised before Susanoo formed all around him.

"Ah, Itachi's brother. The bounty on you will be a pleasure to collect." Kakazu greeted as black tendrils spouted from his back when suddenly he founds himself covered in all encompassing black flames that rapidly burned through his body destroying all of his hearts at once. Sasuke than successfully impaled Hidan with Susanoo's sword but the Jashinist shrugged off the lethal attack like it was nothing. "I am immortal, there is no way you can kill me." Hidan laughed as he fired off his scythe again forcing Sasuke to take evasive manoeuvres. "Tsukoyomi." The Uchiha muttered as Hidan found himself caught in a genjutsu he couldn't break out of. Black lines spread across Hidan's body stretching from head to toe before Sasuke said "Tsukoyomi sealing." The Uchiha's right eye pulled in Sasuke's immortal enemy sealing him inside of it before it went completely blind. Sasuke mentally cursed he could only use it one more time and would have to sacrifice all sight in order to do so before rushing off to find Naruto.

"Multi Shadow Clone jutsu. Search for the Akatsuki base and dispel if you find it." Naruto ordered, using overwhelming numbers to quickly find the Akatsuki stronghold. Whilst his clones acted as a distraction to Konan and the Six paths of pain, Naruto now knew where to find Nagato, the orchestrator of the whole attack.

"Why?" Was the only question Naruto had for the red haired sickly looking man.

"Peace. With all the tailed beasts I can create an ultimate weapon able to flatten a village instantly and when a weapon like that exists no one will start wars as there will be no way to win them." Nagato told him.

"That is not a peace I want. When I become Hokage I'll make everyone happy and there will be no reason to start a war in the first place, you're twisted logic will create fear of battling but not true peace." Naruto argued back as the last of his shadow clones were destroyed. Behind him stood the six paths of pain and Konan preparing to kill him. "Tailed Beast Clone jutsu." Naruto shouted as he split Kuruma's chakra into four bodies. Naruto and his three clones then transformed into four giant versions of Kuruma and four giant tailed beasts bombs began forming. As all four were fired off at once they combined into one to created a massive explosion that obliterated the entire mountaintop.

Giant branches now had Jiriaya and a Tsunade trapped as the four Kage prepared to kill the two Sannin they had been fighting. "I would say it was a close fight but it really wasn't." Kabuto mocked when he heard someone approaching from behind. Turning around he summoned Kusanagi and stabbed Danzo through the chest unforgivingly. "No one can stop me, not even the monster who created me. No more tricks up your sleeve?" Kabuto said bitterly.

"Just one. Jiriaya, Tsunade, do what has to be done for the leaf." Were Danzo's final words as Kabuto was sucked and sealed inside his corpse and the four reanimations fell to the ground lifelessly.

After the Konoha ninja returned triumphant Deidara and Sasori made a speedy escape and sat upon the gedo statue mournfully.

"Do we just give up then on the plan?" Deidara asked his partner unsure as to what to do now.

"Without all nine tailed beast the weapon won't be anywhere near as powerful as it needs to be and if Naruto can take on Pain he can take on us. I'm going to return to my base in the desert, don't know about you." Sasori gruffly explained leaving Deidara looking dejected.

"I doubt Naruto's capture will be necessary." The third remaining Akatsuki member said, as Zetsu emerged from the ground holding a corpse in his hand along with a passed out Yagura.

"Why have you brought us Minato's corpse." Sasori wondered aloud, it would make a great puppet but the plant man wasn't the most trustworthy of people.

"It contains half of Kuruma's chakra, more than enough for our own goals." White Zetsu explained slyly.

"So how do we use this weapon huh?" Deidara asked, reinvigorated that his art was not wasted on a lost cause.

"We'll have to seal it first, but with just the three of us it'll take around a week." Black Zetsu told him once again killing his mood.

"Best get started than." Sasori told them as he prepared for the final sealing.

Two weeks later Sasori and Deidara still hadn't used the ultimate weapon. However Deidara was about to as Sasori had temporarily left on highly important buisness. Implanting the rinnegan in his eye was easy enough as he had already done the same procedure with the scope he had designed when he was caught in one of Orachimaru's more unpleasant genjutsu whilst being recruited. Once he had done that the Gedo statue simply handed him the power of the ten tails, and all of it coursing through his veins felt estatic. Deidara was immature but he was not an idiot and after doing some quick maths in his head he came to one conclusion. "Art is an explosion." Were his final words as he used the divine power he had bestowed upon himself to obliterate the five nations by amplifying the ultimate bomb he had planned to set off on his death by 100,00 fold. And in that instant was a beauty never matched in the history of the world, not that there was much of the world left to match it.


End file.
